Framingham renewable energy company Ameresco has begun work to replace and upgrade Wellesley College’s utility plant.
The work, which began last December and is expected to be online in May, will replace equipment at the end of its life cycle, according to a joint release from the organizations. The new energy center will not only reduce the use of natural gas, but also the college’s demand costs by making use of electric generators in “peak shaving” mode, decreasing the strain on local utilities in addition to providing savings.
“This project will move Wellesley forward towards a more sustainable future and helps achieve our goal of reducing campus greenhouse gas emissions 37% by 2026, as compared to the institution’s 2010 baseline,” Dave Chakraborty, assistant vice president for facilities management and planning at Wellesley College, said in the release.
Equipment installations at the plant will include 4 megawatts of power generation, paralleling switchgear, 800 ton efficient electric chillers, a 600-horsepower firetube pony boiler, a five-cell cooling tower and a 4,000-ton thermal energy storage system.
