Featured Projects

The university’s carbon neutrality goals recommend the utilization of district geothermal systems for heating and cooling buildings to reduce carbon emissions and eventually achieve carbon neutrality. This project will build a geothermal plant on Hayward Street adjacent to the Leinweber Computer Science and Information Building to supply its heating and cooling. Geothermal systems are renewable because of the earth’s constant temperature underground. The Leinweber Building is ideal for this demonstration project because there is sufficient land available for the system and we can learn the dynamics of a geothermal system in our climate. The project will include 100 borings spaced 20 feet apart with underground piping to a depth of 700 feet in an area approximately two-thirds the size of a football field. As we study comprehensive district geothermal systems for North Campus, we envision this relatively small system could be interconnected as future systems are built. The geothermal system and the Leinweber Building will be all-electric and the first large-scale university building that will not rely on natural gas for heating. Currently, the university is sourcing 200 million kilowatt hours per year from renewable energy. We anticipate the remaining purchased electricity on the Ann Arbor Campus will be from renewable energy sources prior to the completion of the Leinweber Building resulting in a carbon-neutral operation. The system will be located underground allowing the existing parking lot to be replaced in the same location.