How to Avoid Storm Blackouts? Colleges Go Big With Microgrids
Tech-savvy universities are leading the way with innovative ideas to make their campuses energy independent.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. —The odor of oil permeates part of this decades-old power plant, located a couple blocks from a zany, modern, multi-colored building by architect Frank Gehry.
MIT’s four-story plant has slashed its use of oil and plans to eliminate it. By 2020, as part of an expansion, it will use low-sulfur oil only for emergencies and rely instead on less-polluting natural gas. It aims to meet all of the university’s growing energy needs for the next quarter century.
“We’ll be capable of operating off the grid,” says MIT’s Don Holmes of the Central Utilities Plant, which provides electricity as well as heating and cooling. “We’re looking at the new plant as a bridge to the future.”
MIT is not alone. Some
