After years of burning coal to generate one fourth of the heating, cooling and electric generation at St. John’s, the Power House has begun burning natural gas as its primary energy and will only use coal and fuel oil as secondary and backup sources.
This move takes St. John’s one step closer to its goal of carbon neutrality by 2035, a goal established in 2007 with the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment.
The change will affect more than the pile of coal behind the Power House-burning natural gas will dramatically lower St. John’s environmental impact. By shifting to natural gas, the Power House will cut CO2 emissions by 58 percent, which means preventing the emission of approximately 41,000 tons of CO2.
The cost of burning natural gas will be about 5 percent greater than burning coal, but Sustainability Fellow Nick Moe says the added cost is worthwhile and would have benefits other than for the environment.
“Even though the fuel costs more, it still makes financial sense,” Moe said. “For example, the people who move coal in the power plant are free to do other projects.”
Not only does natural gas release less carbon into the atmosphere than coal, there are other environmental and medical benefits to the change. The waste product of burning coal is coal ash, a toxic substance not subject to federal protections. According to a risk assessment done by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), living near a wet coal ash storage pond is significantly more dangerous than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
The largest source of federally unregulated mercury pollution is from coal-fired power plants. The power plants release mercury into the atmosphere, which enters into lakes and other bodies of water through rain.
Fish in these contaminated waters absorb the mercury, and when people eat those fish the mercury accumulates in them. According to the EPA, as many as one in six American women has enough mercury in her body to put a baby at risk for mercury poisoning, which can cause severe birth defects.
Even when St. John’s did burn coal, it was less damaging to the environment than a major power plant.
“If we were burning coal, the vast majority would be burned in the bag house, that brown steel structure that is behind the power plant,” Moe said. “It doesn’t cut down on carbon emissions, but it does cut down on particulate emissions, so it catches all the particulates that are emitted by the burning coal.”
St. John’s will use natural gas until Oct. 31, 2013. During this two-year period they hope to establish a long-term energy strategy that may or may not include natural gas.
There have been other substantial changes on campus that may be less noticeable. Over the summer, more than 6,000 fluorescent light fixtures were changed to LED, reducing energy consumption by 40 percent.
Moe emphasized that students should be mindful of their energy use and where it comes from, and that the energy we use here affects other environments, an easily forgotten fact.
“Since natural gas is more expensive, it’s even more important now we conserve energy,” Moe said. “The number one way students can help is to not leave their windows open (in the winter).”
Students can place a request with the physical plant to adjust the temperature of their rooms through an online form or by calling.
“It’s also everyone’s responsibility to make sure St. John’s is using energy as best as it can,” Moe said. “There are some things they can’t control, but individual habits can make a big change.”