University of Richmond Awarded Energy Monitoring System
by Kristin Underwood, San Diego, CA on 08.28.08
Image source: GradProfiles.com
Thanks to a grant from Dominion Power, the University of Richmond (Virginia) will get $100,000 to improve their energy efficiency. The money will go towards purchasing and installing a monitoring system in all 14 of its residence dorms. Over 1,000 students signed a petition in support of the project.
The system will be used no only to quantify just how much electricity students are using, but also to promote sustainability throughout campus as students can see how much they are saving and whether their efforts are working. Three large screens installed across campus will display energy savings for each dorm.
A similar system at Oberlin College showed that students saved up to 55% of their normal electricity usage in just two weeks. University of Richmond plans on doing a similar project when the system goes online Fall 2009, with each dorm competing to use less electricity. The energy behind this grant came from the student body calling for more sustainability on campus and then faculty lobbying for a grant to install the monitoring system.
Dominion plans to award over $20 million to over 1,100 non-profits throughout 26 states, but mainly to the states that Dominion operates in. This is the first college in Virginia to use such a system. No word yet on how all of the financial "savings" will be used on campus.
Dominion is one of the largest electricity generators in the US, with over 26,500 megawatts of generation.
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