Caltech wins Energy Star Award

Caltech students and staff can rest assured that the fuel used to generate electricity is spent wisely and is environmentally friendly.

That’s what the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Partnership, a division of the Environmental Protection Agency, concluded last month when it bestowed, on behalf of the EPA and the Department of Energy, a 2004 CHP Energy Star Award to Caltech.

“Through the recovery of otherwise waste heat for campus cooling and heating, Caltech has demonstrated leadership in energy use and management,” the award’s announcement letter read. “Caltech’s CHP system is a great example for other facilities across the nation.”

Caltech’s CHP system can boast of an efficiency of 73 percent, which means that the system uses approximately 30 percent less fuel than equivalent separate heat and power systems.

The Institute’s aging CHP system was replaced in 2003 with a highly efficient, natural-gas-burning system that not only reduces pollution but is also able to generate up to 90 percent of the energy consumed on campus.
The new system produces power at about five cents per kilowatt-hour. This virtually eliminates Caltech’s vulnerability to dreaded rolling blackouts and brownouts while minimizing dependence on oil and natural gas.
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