Green Mountain College
OP-8: Clean and Renewable Energy

A 150 kW steam turbine was installed at the end of the performance year and operates in conjunction with the wood chip gasification heating plant on campus. It produces electricity as it converts high pressure steam to low pressure steam to be distributed around campus through steam pipes. The following systems are currently not metered to feed into GMC's tracking mechanisms for renewable energy, and provide additional renewable energy to the answers above. -A 500 watt PV system on the Cerridwen Farm greenhouse provides electricity for fans and vents. -A 1.5 kw wind turbine on Cerridwen Farm feeds into the greenhouse battery pack to provide power for greenhouse operations. -A PV system on the Cerridwen Farm Hay Mow consists of two 4' x 8' panels that generate thermal hot water for farm operations. -A PV system that heats hot water distributed through the a high-tunnel greenhouse to heat the root zone of the soil.

Steam production for campus heat and hot water is produced by a combined heat and power (CHP) biomass plant. The plant is powered by locally sourced wood chips which are gasified to produce heat and hot water for campus. This plant, commissioned during the performance year, converted the old heating plant that burned #6 fuel oil to renewable fuel. Once the plant is operating at full capacity, wood chips should replace 85% of the heating oil used in prior years.

In 2006, Green Mountain College become the largest consumer of the CVPS Cow Power™ Program, which directly links electricity consumers and farmers. GMC pays a 4 cent premium on 50% of the main campus electricity supply, as well as 100% of all off campus buildings. That premium has funded the development of a methane capture project on Blue Spruce Diary Farm in Bridport, Vermont. Methane from the dairy operation is converted to electricity and sold to the CVPS grid. Because the GMC demand and the Blue Spruce Farm supply match almost perfectly, GMC's partnership with CVPS Cow Power program has helped to provide additional economic benefits to this local dairy farm while purchasing clean electricity for the College. Other air and water quality issues are also significant. Farm methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere is 20 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Additionally, the methane digestion process removes harmful pathogens from the manure. This process results in a material that is used on the farm as bedding, which eliminates the need to truck large shipments of sawdust to the farm, and also provides compost and non petroleum based fertilizer which is then used on the farm and sold to local businesses.

A 150 kW steam turbine co-generation unit operates in conjunction with the wood chip gasification heating plant on campus. As high pressure steam is converted to low pressure steam for distribution around campus, it passes through the co-generation unit. A turbine within the unit utilizes that "waste" steam and converts it to electricity.