Year In Review
Longwood’s new heating plant to provide even greater fuel efficiency
September 2011
Nearly 100 percent of the Longwood campus’ heat and hot water are now supplied from biomass fuel—a local and renewable fuel source—thanks to the new biomass heating plant that officially opened Sept. 8.
A ceremonial ribbon for the new heating plant was cut by (from left) Richard Bratcher, vice president of Facilities and Real Property; Virginia Secretary of Education Laura Fornash; President Patrick Finnegan; Rita Hughes, vice rector of the Board of Visitors; John Russell, interim superintendent of heating plant operations; and Bob Chambers, project manager for Capital Planning and Construction.
Longwood has practiced sustainability by heating with biomass fuel (sawdust) since 1983. This practice will be even more fuel-efficient thanks to the new heating plant, which began operating in January 2011 and replaces an adjacent heating plant that dates to 1938. Longwood is the only public institution of higher education in Virginia and one of only two state agencies that burns biomass for heating fuel.
Burning the sawdust—mostly pine and some hardwood, a byproduct from local mills—is not only cost-effective but also ecologically responsible because hazardous emissions from burning sawdust are lower than than those from gas, oil and coal. Virginia Secretary of Education Laura Fornash, who spoke at the opening, called Longwood “a model for alternative renewable fuel usage for all of our higher education institutions.”
The facility on Barlow Field has two storage silos for the sawdust. The side-by-side silos, enclosed in the brick façade building, have a combined storage capacity of 40,000 cubic feet, about 1.5 weeks of fuel.
Submit a Comment