RICHMOND, Ky. (AP) - Eastern Kentucky University's efforts at
making a more energy efficient campus are about 75 percent
complete, school officials say, with a goal of being done by the
spring of 2010.
Eastern Kentucky University associate vice president for Capital
Planning and Facilities Services James Street said the project is
already beginning to show results, a year after it started.
Street told The Richmond Register the school's utility bills are
dropping and when the project is over, the campuses' $6.4 million
annual utility budget should shrink.
"We are starting to see that drop (in utility bills) that was
anticipated," Street said. "We have seen very tangible results
and have had a great deal of success with this project."
Upon the project's completion, the energy savings will be
equivalent to preserving 227 acres of forest land, taking 6,229
cars off the road and preventing 179 rail cars of coal from being
burned.
Dan Crowley, a representative of Siemens Industry Inc., which is
handling the energy efficient makeover at 86 campus buildings,
projected the project will save about $8,000 a day in campus
utilities once complete.
The college will have invested about $27 million upon the
completion of the project. No additional taxpayer dollars were used
to finance this project, Crowley said.
"It's financed based on the energy savings," he said.
Work remaining to be complete includes lighting upgrades across
campus, expected to be done just before Christmas break, said
Michael Azzara, who represents Siemens' building technologies
division.
"We're touching almost all the buildings on campus," Azzara
said. "We spent so much time working cooperatively with facility
services. We had a very good idea of what we were getting into.
Throughout the entire campus, we've replaced almost all of the
lighting technology from incandescent to a much more energy
efficient fluorescent lighting."
Eastern Kentucky University President Doug Whitlock said the
project is an attempt by the university to be a "good steward of
the environment."
"It's going to significantly reduce this institutions carbon
footprint," Whitlock said. "It's going to reduce our contribution
to a variety of greenhouse gases."
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On the Net: http://www.eku.edu/green
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Information from: Richmond Register,
http://www.richmondregister.com

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)