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Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:29 PM CST
Public invited to energy center groundbreaking
Staff Report
CHARLESTON — Although some work has begun on Eastern Illinois University’s Renewable Energy Center site, the ceremonial groundbreaking will be today, according to a press release from EIU.
The public is welcome to join members of the university community and guests at 3:30 p.m.
Due to limited parking at the construction site, located on the east side of campus near the intersection of 18th Street and Edgar Drive, transportation will be provided. Buses will leave from the east side of EIU’s MLK Jr. Union at 3:20 p.m. and return guests to a reception in the 1895 Room of the union immediately following the ceremony.
Those expected to speak at the ceremony include state Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon; state Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet; Bill O’Rourke, chair of the EIU Board of Trustees; Eric Wilbur, student representative, EIU Board of Trustees; and EIU President Bill Perry.
Honeywell International representatives will also attend, as that company will oversee the construction of the center, as well as the installation of agreed-upon energy conservation measures on the broader campus at EIU. In total, the project will cost $80 million.
Honeywell guarantees that Eastern will attain annual energy/operation cost savings equal to or greater than the annual cost of financing the project. Annual energy savings of less than the guaranteed amount would be supplemented by Honeywell, and that supplement would be used to repay amounts financed, university officials said.
The largest of the energy conservation measures — with a price tag of $56 million — is the center itself, which Eastern considers an economical and ecologically friendly answer to the university’s critical power needs and made necessary by the deterioration of the university’s current coal-fired power plant. Built circa 1925, that plant has been plagued by persistent equipment failures and replacement parts have been difficult, if not impossible, to find due to the age of the equipment.
The new facility — a “biomass gasifier” — will meet the university’s heating and cooling needs by burning plant matter. Eastern will be permitted to burn two-inch virgin, or non-treated, wood chips obtained as by-products from the lumber industry. The wood chips will be much more “clean burning” than the coal used currently, thus reducing the overall air emissions being released into the environment, EIU officials have said.
Additional “biomass” fuel sources may be considered in the future.
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