Suffolk construction is onboard the Dartmouth College decarbonization project. The construction company’s Portland-based team in the Northeast Region will handle part of the project’s top priority aspects. Suffolk is also doing pre-construction work and will start main construction work this spring as per official communication.
The team will convert existing steam systems in the college’s science cluster to hot water heating systems. This will encompass Wilder, Fairchild, and Steele Halls. Renovation work to the 127-year-old Wilder Hall will also be carried out.
Dartmouth decarbonization project
Dartmouth College invested $500 million in climate and sustainability with the prospects of being a frontier in climate action. This is gearing on well as construction projects in their calendar are resuming. Areas of interest include those around E. Wheelock Street and Fayerweather where distribution piping upgrades will be done. Tunnel construction in Floren Varsity and Leverone Field houses are also scheduled to begin soon.
Project factsheet
Project: Dartmouth Decarbonization Program
Client: Dartmouth College
Cost: $500 million +
Project Manager: Dartmouth Project Management Services
Current construction status: In-progress
Entails of Dartmouth decarbonization project
The decarbonization program in the NH college is focused on several energy aspects. These include: heating and cooling strategies, energy consumption and the focus on high energy-efficient buildings. The highly efficient buildings will be those of a transitioned traditional-to-low-carbon energy sources. Dartmouth college is also undertaking their energy changes through expanding their geo-exchange system that is comprised of borefields and energy plants. The geo-exchange system will help the campus meet their baseload heating capacity. Dartmouth will also build thermal storage to handle extra heat pump and solar-thermal energy for a future date. Solar thermal and PV panels installations to supplement Dartmouth’s energy load will also be done.
The project aims to install the geo-exchange borefields by 2028 while their plants will be operational by 2030. Distribution upgrades like the one Suffolk is involved in will be completed by 2030 as per the projected timeline. Decarbonization will have reached 60% in 2030, and 100% by 2050.
Darthmouth energy decarbonization project aims to achieve net zero by 2050. This is evidently viable when the numbers are properly discerned. As per current estimates, only 52% of the energy generated per unit of energy used to generate the steam gets to heat the buildings. The other 48% is lost. The close to half-of-the-whole that is lost is through: lesser efficiency in combustion and in-plant use, the distribution system and the building heating systems. The steam to hot water transition will lessen losses in distribution due to the “heat recovery” concept. Heat recovery basically entails the capture and reintroduction of lost energy back in into the heating system.
Project milestones in phases
Phase 1 had East Wheelock Street in the beginning of summer 2024. Also in the same timeframe was Dartmouth Row and Lebanon Street for phase 2.
Sections south of East Wheelock Street between College Street and Crosby Street will begin in January 2025 for phase 3 while The Green and Crosby Street will begin in March 2025 for phase 4. Summer of 2025 will see two vault connections for phase 5, one off of East Wheelock and one off of Lebanon Street. Also in summer will be the sections surrounding Thompson Arena for phase 6.
Fall of 2025 will feature phase 7 near Berry Sport Center and along South Park Street. Much more is definitely set to come from this very “green stride” in climate action.
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