The last visible trace of dirty energy production at Bridgewater State University – a 149 1Ž2-foot brick smokestack that conspicuously marks the steam generating plant off Plymouth Street – is coming down, brick by brick.
While the plant converted from #6 oil to natural gas in 2013 – a move that has reduced carbon emissions by 31.3 percent and has generated in excess of a half-million dollars in savings every year – two components of bygone power production remain: the smokestack and removal of four underground tanks.
Karen W. Jason, associate vice president of the Division of Administration and Finance who oversees facilities management and planning, said the conversation to convert to natural gas began in 2012 after a cost analysis demonstrated the project would pay for itself in five to seven years.
The steam-generating plant, built in 1964, feeds most buildings on the West Campus, including Boyden Hall, Rondileau Campus Center and Maxwell Library. Its conversion to natural gas was completed in May 2013. At that time, old oil-burning boilers were demolished and the new gas system installed.
The smokestack must be taken down before four 30,000-gallon underground tanks can be removed, Ms. Jason said, which will be the final stage of the project.
The project is among several dozen “sustainability” improvements undertaken by Bridgewater State University over the past decade, Ms. Jason said. While the campus is a full third larger than it was in 2002 with extended hours and days of operation, its normalized greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 22 percent.
“We are always looking to cut our energy consumption,” Ms. Jason said.
The removal of the smokestack is expected to take two weeks. The structure will literally come down brick by brick as the contractor uses a man-cage attached to a crane to knock the bricks down inside the stack. The area will be landscaped once the project is complete. (Story by Eva T. Gaffney, G '01; photo by Rod Delano)