Sustainable Energy Program

As part of its ongoing commitment to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Dartmouth is making progress on our sustainable energy program, which will move the campus closer to meeting our decarbonization goals.

Over the past 15 years, Dartmouth has been implementing energy efficiency improvements to existing facilities, and designing new high-performance facilities to reduce operating costs, improve resiliency, and reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions.

We are working to convert Dartmouth's heating distribution system from steam to hot water, which will improve the efficiency of the campus heating distribution system. In addition, unlike steam, a hot-water distribution system can utilize non-combustion, low-carbon energy sources like geo-exchange, solar thermal, and heat pumps.

The first portion of this hot-water network is already built and serves the heating systems in a number of buildings, including the Class of 1982 Engineering and Computer Science Center, the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society, Dartmouth Hall, and Reed, Thornton, and Anonymous halls.

Hot-water heating systems and energy efficiency improvements are currently underway in Rauner Special Collections Library, the Hopkins Center for the Arts, and Burke Hall. We have also installed rooftop solar photovoltaic systems, which provide clean electricity, at Irving, ECSC, Graham Indoor Practice Facility, Anonymous Hall, and the Friends of Dartmouth Rowing Boathouse.

Dartmouth has drilled geo-exchange test wells in several locations on campus and additional testing will take place in March 2024 to determine locations for future geo-exchange boreholes. Geo-exchange is one of several energy technologies Dartmouth is investigating to transition the campus to low-carbon energy sources.

Our next round of testing will take place in March 2024.

• Utility Infrastructure:
  • Integrated low-carbon energy supply/building conversion detailed study
  • Design of campus-wide hot-water and chilled-water networks
• New Construction and Building Renovation Projects, incorporating hot-water systems:
  • Dartmouth Hall
  • Hopkins Center for the Arts
  • Andres, Brace, and Zimmerman renovation projects
• Energy Efficiency and Retrofit Projects:
  • Burke Hall deep energy retrofit and hot-water conversion project
  • Rauner Special Collections Library deep energy retrofit and hot-water conversion project
  • Campus LED lighting conversion

• Utility Infrastructure Projects:
  • North to West Utility Extension: The project brought new hot- and chilled-water networks, new communications pathways, and new electrical distribution systems to the west campus. 
• New Construction and Building Renovation Projects, incorporating hot-water heating systems:
  • Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society
  • Engineering and Computer Science Center
  • Graham Indoor Practice Facility
  • Anonymous Hall
  • Reed Hall
  • Thornton Hall
• Energy Efficiency and Retrofit Projects:
  • Steele Hall Renewal and Energy Retrofit
  • North Chilled-Water Plant Energy Optimization
  • Campus LED Lighting Conversion
• Solar Projects:
  • New Rooftop Photovoltaic Installations
  • More Solar Panels to Be Installed on Campus 
  • New Solar Panels Help Reduce Reliance on Fossil Fuels
  • Dartmouth Adds More Solar Power to Campus