During a recent "Conversation with the President on MSU's Energy Future" program,
announced that the University's power plant would
by the end of 2016.
President Simon kicked off a panel discussion that also included Garrick Rochow, Vice President & Chief Customer Officer for Consumers Energy, Gary Farha, President & CEO--CustomerFirst Renewables and Dr. Wolfgang Bauer, University Distinguished Professor of Physics and key energy advisor.
We interviewed Simon, Rochow and Farha for a special
program focused on MSU's plan for a more sustainable energy future.
According to Simon, it was largely the "MSU research programs and their energy affordability and reliability needs, especially the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (
), that provided the impetus to review and rethink every assumption that was part of our overall energy strategy."
This reexamination, in the learning-based MSU tradition, included faculty, staff and students, as well as external partners like Consumers Energy and CustomerFirst Renewables.
"Under the leadership of individuals like Dr. Bauer and Dr. Satish Udpa, we worked backwards from where we wanted to be with respect to energy," Simon said, "and true to what we do at MSU, the development of our energy transition plan was, at its core, an academic exercise."
According to Simon, the announcement to end coal use to generate campus power must be viewed in the broader context of the entire
.
In fact, MSU has been quietly transitioning away from coal for some time now, given the cost and availability of the cleaner burning natural gas. In addition, MSU has in operation a large anaerobic digester and has been conducting on-going research on biomass conversion. The University is also committed to using more renewables while also realizing that it will likely be far more practical to purchase that green energy from the grid instead of building large-scale wind and solar facilities on campus.
As important as it, the MSU energy plan is just one salient component of the University's overarching sustainability effort.
This holistic strategy includes, among other things, more energy-efficient buildings, judicious water use, sourcing locally-produced food, recycling, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, curriculum development and on-going research.
"This is about making the entire ecosystem more sustainable, and we are being very systematic about how we do this," Simon said. "We have been talking about energy use, but in fact, lowering energy use is one of the best strategies to reduce our carbon footprint, and we are also working very hard on all of our energy conservation measures--including those that each of us can do in our offices and homes."
Please click here to hear my conversation with President Simon.
"Our partnership is growing," says Consumers Energy's Rochow in discussing his company's relationship with Michigan State University. "When we think about energy policy in the state and where MSU wants to head, it's really around reliable, adaptable and affordable energy."
Rochow, Heinze
Rochow says Consumers Energy's focus on energy efficiency "has provided a lot of energy savings for a number of our customers both in electricity and natural gas. Since 2009, our customers have saved over $855 million in natural gas and electricity.
"That's equivalent to a 600 megawatt power plant. Being efficient about how we supply energy is an important part of how we meet the future energy needs of the state of Michigan."
Rochow says nine coal plants in the state of Michigan will be taken off line in the months ahead and that clean, renewable energy will have to replace "1.3 gigawatts or the equivalent of a million customers."
Please click here to hear my conversation with Rochow.
Farha says his company has been working with MSU for about three years to help the university understand what some of its options are in creating more renewable energy to power the campus.
Farha, Heinze
"MSU isn't only a large generator of power, but it's also one of the most knowledgeable universities when it comes to understanding energy and how to use it," Farha says. "We help clients integrate solutions, and that has special meaning for Michigan State because of its onsite generation and its desire to optimize this transition towards large-scale renewables in a way that's very economic and that fits well with what's already here on the campus."
Farha says his company's project with MSU is a change management exercise.
"What we mean by that is this really does represent cultural change around how we think about energy, how we get access to it, how we contract for it directly, and how - if we manage it differently - it can actually help improve not only our cost but the risk profile of our future cost.
"Renewables have a whole host of different benefits beyond the "greenness" of them that can be very attractive for large organizations."
Please click here to hear my conversation with Farha.
airs every Sunday evening at 7:00 on
and around the state each weekend via the Michigan Talk Network.
Russ White contributed to this report.