The University of Michigan is now sourcing some energy from water wells instead of oil wells. The indoor portion of the new Weisfeld Golf Center, opening this fall off of S. Main Street, is the first campus facility to be powered by geothermal technology, which uses the earth's temperature for heating and cooling.
Heat pumps inside the building pump a water-glycol mixture through seven 300-foot-deep wells and into the ground, where the temperature is a constant 55 degrees. In the summer, the heat pump extracts heat from the building space and sends it into the ground where it's naturally cooled; come winter, the well draws warmer water from the ground for warmth.
"We're always looking trying to find new alternative energy sources and this building seemed to fit the technology very well," says Terry Alexander, executive director of
U-M's Office of Campus Sustainability. The 9,750-square-foot structure is small enough to be a reasonable pilot site before trying to expand the system to other areas of campus, he says.
Careful consideration goes into the placement of geothermal systems because of the number of wells required, Alexander explains. "If you look at some of our larger buildings that are 100,000-plus square feet, that's a lot of wells to put in the ground around a building, which takes up a lot of land area that you typically don't have available to you in a city."
The geothermal system cost about $290,000, just slightly more expensive than conventional heating and cooling equipment, according to Alexander. With geothermal expected to run 30% more efficiently than a standard system, he figures on a two-year payback period for the installation.
Source: Terry Alexander, executive director of U-M's Office of Campus Sustainability
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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