North Energy Exchange Center (NEEC) and Thermal Energy Storage (TES)

The NEEC and associated TES project will construct and expand a regional ground-source heat exchange system, including geothermal wells at Parking Lot 31, underground piping and heat recovery chillers and related infrastructure within the existing North Chiller plant.  NEEC and TES will allow us to capture, store, and use heat that is currently wasted, unused, or rejected by standard heating and cooling cycles. These systems will allow a building that needs cooling to share its excess heat with another building that needs heat.  This interconnection creates a highly efficient, electrically powered system that reduces energy use and emissions, and enables a shift to fossil-free and/or renewable energy in the future.

The NEEC will be bolstered by the expanded capacity provided by a campus regional Thermal Energy Storage Tank capable of delivering 2.2M gallons of chilled water in place of a mechanical chiller. This system will lower energy use & carbon emissions, and more easily allow for a shift to fossil-fuel-free and/or renewable energy sources in the future.  The NEEC will provide heating and cooling to the Computer Sciences Laboratories and Sustainable Engineering Laboratories buildings.  The NEEC will have capacity to support an additional 40,000 square feet once completed and the infrastructure is expandable with additional wells and related ground source heat pumps to accommodate additional buildings in the future. …  Parking Lot 31 will be repaved following the installation of geothermal wells with the supply and return pipes.  Improvements to the stormwater drainage system include installation of an underground infiltration system and associated pipe and manholes to mitigate the increase in imperviousness with the removal of the grass islands in the parking lot. 

The NEEC and TES projects constitute a major step in the UMass carbon reduction initiative.  95% of our carbon emissions are from burning fossil fuels at the central heating plant to make steam and electricity and heat the campus. Our carbon reduction goals focus on replacing steam with fossil-free alternatives like ground sourced heat pumps or geothermal and using low or zero carbon fuel sources at the central heating plant.  The NEEC and TES projects will help meet the commonwealth’s goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to limit the climate crisis in our own community and throughout the world.