Construction work on a college campus in summertime is certainly not unusual. It's even to be expected. However, this summer on this college campus there is something rather unusual happening as far as construction is concerned. The university is installing pipes to the nation's largest geothermal initiative, which is expected to save the university over $2M a year in energy costs as well as make Ball State a leader in alternative energy.
The project will replace four coal-burning furnaces that heat and cool 45 buildings and span the entire 660-acre campus. It is nothing short of extraordinary.
The boreholes are located away from the core of campus, but the hot and cold water pipes will be installed underground throughout campus. For a map of the of the geothermal project: http://cms.bsu.edu/About/~/media/Files/About/Geothermal/GeoThermal_Final.ashx
And for more information about the project, including links to IPR segments: http://cms.bsu.edu/About/Geothermal.aspx
These pictures were taken this morning and the construction crew appears to be installing sections of the hot water loop in front of the Health and Physical Activity building. In the picture above, you can see the Health building on the left. Architecture is between that building and Shafer Tower. The picture below is looking north on McKinley.
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