First Salem State Building Fully Decarbonized

Salem State University is proud to announce a significant step forward in its climate leadership: the complete transition of the warehouse space at 68 Loring Avenue off of fossil fuels. It is the first campus building to achieve this milestone in the university’s pursuit of carbon neutrality by 2050. Salem State replaced two outdated 100,000 Btu gas furnaces with two five-ton, electric Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) while also upgrading insulation in the 2,000 square foot space. By embracing this cleaner, more sustainable approach to heating and cooling, Salem State earned a $25,000 project incentive from National Grid.

Salem State is also pursuing decarbonization on a much larger scale via the North Campus decarbonization effort, in conjunction with Project BOLD. Phase I of this project will establish a geothermal wellfield with approximately 100 wells under the parking lot behind Meier Hall. These ground source heat pumps will deliver fossil fuel-free heating and cooling to Horace Mann and to the Meier Hall Lab Addition. Eventually heat pumps will support a clean energy loop for North Campus buildings. Test wells for this project were drilled in January and geothermal wellfield drilling will commence later this summer.  

While the university replaces building heating and cooling systems, SSU is also pursuing energy efficiency opportunities, in partnership with National Grid which is providing financial incentives for energy use reductions. This month, for example, Salem State decreased our energy footprint in the Central Campus Building Data Center by seventy percent by replacing an oversized 10-ton air conditioning unit with a 3-ton, efficient unit. This was possible after the IT team pursued efficiencies which allowed the removal of unneeded equipment that had been drawing power.