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Friday, June 26, 2009 10:20 PM CDT
OUR VIEW: EIU powers up its energy savings plans
By the JG/T-C
editorial@jg-tc.com
With approval this week from the Eastern Illinois University Board of Trustees, the college is about to blanket its campus with energy conservation measures.
Cooperation among university, city of Charleston and state of Illinois officials helped get EIU this far, with an estimated $80 million in projects in the offing. One of the key aspects of this plan is that the improvements will be paid for via money saved over time as energy consumption is reduced on campus.
The largest and most visible portion of the effort is the approximately $44-million Renewable Energy Center, which is designed to replace the aging coal-fired power plant in the center of campus.
The new center, to be located near the corner of Illinois Route 130 and Edgar Drive, will be a “biomass gasifier” that heats and cools the campus by burning nontreated wood chips derived from lumber industry byproducts, according to EIU officials.
This process should reduce overall air emissions as compared to burning coal at the old 1920s-era plant.
In addition, the plant could burn other biomass materials, creating another market for area farmers.
It took cooperation between city leaders and EIU officials to develop and hone an energy center design that both meets the college’s needs and is a good neighbor to homes near its planned location. Then, it took Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature on legislation to allow EIU to borrow money for the projects and avoid raising tuition and fees or taking state funds.
The center is expected to save an amount each year either equal to or greater than the cost of financing it.
But EIU’s energy-saving measures go beyond the site where construction is to begin this fall. The university’s contract with Honeywell International, Inc. calls for several energy upgrades across campus.
The plan is to further reduce the college’s consumption of electricity, steam and water, officials said.
Wind turbines also may be part of the new energy moves for the university, whose work with Honeywell has included studies of producing electricity via such turbines.
All these moves make not only environmentally friendly sense for EIU and the Charleston community but also make financial sense for every taxpayer who helps fund this state institution. In an era — particularly in Illinois — when government waste seems to be the order of the day, more than ever, rather than the exception to the rule, this is a refreshing change.
The energy-saving moves at EIU are something to which both the on-campus and the area community can look forward.
— JG/T-C Editorial Board
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