Sierra Club pressures System to switch from coal energy
Group hopes to initiate change at UW-Eau Claire plant
McLean Bennett
Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Campus News
Posted: 11/04/09, 7:30 a.m.
The Sierra Club would like to see the UW System eventually transfer its coal-fired heating plants to what it considers more environmentally friendly formats, local Club member Richard Spindler said.
Such changes already are underway at a plant at UW-Madison, and Spindler said he hopes to begin educating administrators and students at UW-Eau Claire about coal burning to set changes underfoot here too.
"Coal is just such a terrible fossil fuel to burn. …" Spindler said. "We're really interested in moving UW away from coal, toward something more like biomass or maybe geothermal if possible."
A proposed project at UW-Madison's Charter Street Heating Plant would rebuild and expand the facility to shift it from a coal-fired to a biomass format, according to a UW-Madison news release. The $250 million project is targeted to start in May 2010, with completion set for December 2013.
Jim Franklin, superintendant of the heating plant at Eau Claire, said Eau Claire's plant usually burns about 9,000 tons of coal each year during the heating season, which he said runs from about Oct. 15 to April 1. He said that amount of coal is roughly the size of Towers South Residence Hall.
That amount is down from a peak of about 11,000 tons of coal burned each heating season during the mid to late 1990s, Franklin said.
"Our load has reduced some," he said, noting that much of that reduction has been brought about by introducing more efficient heating systems in campus buildings.
The plant passed its last inspection in August 2008, said Ed Culhane, spokesman for the state Department of Resources west-central region.
Franklin said he believes the heating plant eventually will be weaned off of coal, but that transforming the plant into a biomass facility would require major revamps. He said the plant would have to add larger boilers and quadruple its storage space to accommodate switching to biomass.
The Sierra Club would like to see the UW System eventually transfer its coal-fired heating plants to what it considers more environmentally friendly formats, local Club member Richard Spindler said.
Such changes already are underway at a plant at UW-Madison, and Spindler said he hopes to begin educating administrators and students at UW-Eau Claire about coal burning to set changes underfoot here too.
"Coal is just such a terrible fossil fuel to burn. …" Spindler said. "We're really interested in moving UW away from coal, toward something more like biomass or maybe geothermal if possible."
A proposed project at UW-Madison's Charter Street Heating Plant would rebuild and expand the facility to shift it from a coal-fired to a biomass format, according to a UW-Madison news release. The $250 million project is targeted to start in May 2010, with completion set for December 2013.
Jim Franklin, superintendant of the heating plant at Eau Claire, said Eau Claire's plant usually burns about 9,000 tons of coal each year during the heating season, which he said runs from about Oct. 15 to April 1. He said that amount of coal is roughly the size of Towers South Residence Hall.
That amount is down from a peak of about 11,000 tons of coal burned each heating season during the mid to late 1990s, Franklin said.
"Our load has reduced some," he said, noting that much of that reduction has been brought about by introducing more efficient heating systems in campus buildings.
The plant passed its last inspection in August 2008, said Ed Culhane, spokesman for the state Department of Resources west-central region.
Franklin said he believes the heating plant eventually will be weaned off of coal, but that transforming the plant into a biomass facility would require major revamps. He said the plant would have to add larger boilers and quadruple its storage space to accommodate switching to biomass.
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