Friday, March 29, 2024

Off the Grid

Hoosier businesses increasingly supply their own energy needs

By Victoria Davis and Rebecca R. Bibbs

Off the GridFlash back to May 2009 and one would find a massive team on Ball State University’s campus working on an $82.9 million geothermal project in Muncie. Today nearly half of the 1,100-acre campus is heated by geothermal energy.

“The project produces hot water for heating and cold water for cooling,” said Director of Engineering and Construction Operations, Jim Lowe. “It’s an alternative to burning coal in which we make steam. That process is being replaced with a geothermal process called ground source geothermal heating and cooling.”

There was a time that getting off the grid seemed like something done only by people on the fringes of society. But with the cost of electricity increasing and the intense need to discover new ways to provide energy, Ball State is one of many entities and businesses turning to renewable energy sources to heat, cool and power their spaces. Major companies and service areas, such as the Indianapolis International Airport and the

General Motors plant in Fort Wayne, also have made commitments to serve the planet well by using solar energy or landfill gas to create electricity.

Ball State originally awarded its contract to build a geothermal building on the north side of its campus and has allocated $33 million to construct an additional facility on the south side of the campus. About half of the campus receives warm and cool water as a result of the geothermal project.

The Indiana Office of Energy Development (IOED) reported, “Ball State University has completed Phase 1 of the United States’ largest ground-source, closed-loop district geothermal energy system. The university anticipates that $2 million dollars in savings will result from this project.”

The IOED also reported that as of June 2014, about 93 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels have been installed throughout the state. For instance, Bloomingfoods Market & Deli, located in Bloomington, uses a solar water heater installed on the roof of one of its locations, which preheats water and serves the kitchen.

“It has a natural gas backup heater for when the solar energy isn’t producing enough heat because the health department requires pretty hot water,” said Facilities Manager Pete Kinne. “We get a lot of bang for our buck using our solar water heater.”

The business also has a solar electricity generator used at another location; however it is mostly used as a demonstrator because it doesn’t produce as much energy.

“This is evidence that we are committed to alternative energy,” he said.

Kinne said the company talked about the process for about six to eight months beforehand, and once the decision was made, installation for the whole project took about two days.

The Comprehensive Hoosier Option to Incentivize Cleaner Energy (CHOICE) program will increase the renewable energy production for the state to 10 percent by 2025.

Tough it may not be their primary source of income, companies that supply their own power also have an opportunity to sell surplus energy back to the grid.

But not everyone is shunning the conveniences of modern utilities. Though they aren’t supposed to for religious reasons, a growing number of Hoosier Amish, some of whom have mechanized operations using electricity alternatives like kerosene, increasingly use cell phones, especially when they own businesses.

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