UW-Madison Facilities Planning and Management plans to completely phase coal out of operations in the Charter Street heating plant by 2013, soliciting public feedback at a meeting Wednesday.
The Charter Street heating plant primarily supplies direct heating and cooling to a large portion of the over 20 million square feet of buildings on campus. Historically, the plant has consumed as much as 135,000 tons of coal per year in order to accomplish this goal.
Wisconsin's Department of Administration and UW-Madison are seeking to shift the heating and cooling energy burden to renewable biofuels and natural gas.
Officials hope to begin the $250 million project by 2010 and anticipate completion by the 2013-2014 heating season.
According to UW-Madison Associate Vice Chancellor Al Fish, coal will eventually be completely eliminated at the facility.
Experts predict the conversion will reduce overall heavy metal and ozone emissions by 90 percent and reduce particulate matter and harmful carbon emissions by approximately 50 percent.
Conversion would require the expansion and upgrade of current Mills Street facilities. Plans for the new plant call for the replacement of three of four coal-fired boilers with those that burn natural gas, the retrofitting of the fourth to burn natural gas and biomass and one new boiler to burn biomass.
""We will be phasing out coal as soon as we possibly can,"" John Harrod, UW-Madison physical plant director, said.
Dependence on biomass as an energy source would mean an increase in traffic coming into the plant. Accordingly, officials said they are paying special attention to and looking for feedback on how construction and expansion would affect public, private and pedestrian transit in the area.
No market currently exists in the area specifically for the production or purchase of renewable biomass fuel, though officials said they are confident that sufficient material can be acquired within a 100 mile radius once a stable market has been established.
Although officials said there is not yet a design for the project, they do have concepts planned out.
""We're anxious to get your feedback ... to evaluate and plan for what is really a dramatic transformation investment,"" Fish said.
