Geothermal System Groundbreaking Ceremony
Welcoming remarks for President Jo Ann M. Gora
Saturday, May 9, 2009; 11:30 a.m.; Geothermal field west of Carmichael Hall
Good morning! I am Jo Ann Gora, president of Ball State University, and I welcome you to campus for the groundbreaking of our geothermal energy project. We have just finished our Commencement, so today is already memorable. What we are about to do makes the day truly historic, and I thank all of you for being here.
I want to thank several special members of our audience for their attendance today. First and foremost, I express my personal thanks to Senator Richard Lugar, who provided such inspiring remarks this morning and will be addressing us shortly. Early on, when we at Ball State were researching a university-wide geothermal energy system, Senator Lugar and his staff connected us with several federal experts on alternative energy options, including those at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Thank you for all that you have done for this university, Senator Lugar.
I also want to express my appreciation to the members of our Board of Trustees, whose discussions have been so crucial in our decision to move to a geothermal system. It is only fitting that they join us for today's ceremonies and that President Tom DeWeese participate in this groundbreaking.
Several state officials have joined us today, including Sen. Sue Errington and Rep. Dennis Tyler. We thank the General Assembly for funding phase one of this project. Brandon Seitz, director of the Indiana Office of Energy, has joined us as well. Thanks to all of you for being here.
I also want to thank our local leadership, including Muncie Mayor Sharon McShurley and members of the Muncie City Council and Delaware County Council. Finally, we have a number of attendees from the Indiana business community, including officials from the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and companies representing well drillers, energy suppliers, water pump manufacturers, architects, and project designers, to name just a few. On behalf of Ball State, thank you to all of our honored guests.
This is a historic day for this university, but I also firmly believe that it is a historic day for our state and our country. This project will validate that district geothermal energy projects are economically viable, efficient, and good for our environment.
This university is increasingly known for its innovation, including our immersive learning projects and our Emerging Media Initiative. In fact, this project offers rich opportunities to engage students and faculty involved in immersive learning, emerging media, and other educational projects with a system unlike any other.
The spirit that drives us to pioneer new ways of learning in higher education and explore blossoming technologies is the same that drives us to lead the way in demonstrating that geothermal energy is an economically viable and environmentally advantageous energy source of the future. This system will heat and cool more than 40 buildings over 660 acres and as such, it will be the largest full-scale district geothermal project in the country.
That means that we are attracting interest from a wide variety of organizations--everyone from the U.S. Department of Energy to other colleges and universities and from other communities to elementary and secondary schools. Once again, we find ourselves on the leading edge, a position we enthusiastically embrace.
Our geothermal energy system is only the latest example of how Ball State develops creative solutions to meet today's challenges. This project will create much-needed jobs, especially in construction and manufacturing, during an economic downturn. It will save the university $2 million per year after full implementation at a time when energy costs continue to rise. It will debunk the erroneous assumption that alternative energy projects are always too expensive or impractical. It will demonstrate that this is a viable fuel alternative for large-scale projects and a technology that has the potential to spread across the nation, bringing the same benefits to many other cost-conscious businesses and communities. And on top of all that, it's good for the environment--we will cut our carbon footprint roughly in half.
I don't have to tell you that this is not your typical groundbreaking ceremony. There are no silver shovels and no artist's renderings. Usually, we have students and faculty present who would take advantage of some new, creative building space for teaching, learning, and collaborating. Today, we begin building something that will cause a temporary mess at certain campus sites, including this one, but then will look essentially the same after construction is completed. In the meantime, we will have created a veritable beehive of activity underground to a depth of 400 feet that will supply our campus with the energy it needs.
Our system is a geothermal heat pump system. It uses the Earth as either a heat source--when operating in heating mode--or a heat sink--dissipating heat while in cooling mode. The ground a few feet below the surface has a very stable temperature throughout the year. Geothermal heat pumps draw that available heat in the winter and sink heat into the ground in the summer.
Our system includes four components: well fields, heat pump chillers or energy centers, hot and cold district loops, and building interfaces. The area here near Carmichael Hall is one of three well fields spaced around campus. The fields will be a series of closed pipes that run vertically in the ground. Ball State’s closed loop system will consist of between 3,700 and 4,000 boreholes, approximately 400 feet deep, and it will circulate only fresh water. There is no direct interaction between the water in the system and the Earth; only heat transfers across the pipe.
Near each of these well fields will be an energy center or heat pump chiller. These three energy centers are the workhorses of the system. The heat pulled from the ground or sunk into the ground will be transferred, or exchanged, from where it originates to where it is needed. That exchange happens through the two district loops that run through campus. One is a cold-water loop; the second is a hot-water loop. Much of the piping needed for this system already exists as part of Ball State’s current heating and cooling system.
Finally, interfaces inside buildings handle the energy transferred from the district loops. Heat exchangers and fans will deliver the temperature desired by the building's occupants. Faculty, staff, and students will notice no difference in the temperature in offices and classrooms once the switch to geothermal is complete.
Our ceremonies today bring this exciting year in Ball State history to an appropriate conclusion while opening a new chapter. It was the 90th anniversary of our founding, which as most of you know, happened when the five Ball brothers purchased a teacher-training school, made more than $1.5 million in improvements to its buildings, and then turned the deed over to the state of Indiana.
What you may not know is that the brothers came to Muncie largely to reduce costs for their glass business by using "free" energy in the form of natural gas pulled from the ground. This gave them a competitive advantage and their business skyrocketed. Literally. Now they make satellites. Today, the university they founded begins the process of saving millions annually by using a different form of "free" energy pulled from the same ground. I'm sure they would believe that the same entrepreneurial spirit they demonstrated 90 years ago is alive and well in the university that bears their name today.
It's now my pleasure to introduce a man who truly needs no introduction. He is a fifth-generation Hoosier, the longest serving U.S. senator in Indiana history, and the chamber's senior Republican. Please welcome Senator Richard Lugar.