Massachusetts recently announced that it has awarded $23 million to nine projects that will replace or reduce the use of fossil fuel systems at public universities and other state-owned facilities—a move that is expected to cover as much as 45% of eligible project costs, helping recipients move projects into construction, reduce upfront expenses, or expand their original scope.

The grants will support work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Salem State University, as well as a number of other facilities operated by several state agencies. The projects are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 21,000 metric tons each year and an estimated 625,000 metric tons over the complete lifecycle of the buildings, according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Funding was awarded through the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources’ Leading by Example Decarbonization Implementation Grant Program, which helps state agencies and public colleges and universities replace fossil fuel equipment with cleaner heating and cooling technologies.

UMass Amherst plans industrial heat pump

UMass Amherst received $7.35 million toward the installation of a 5-megawatt industrial heat pump at the university’s Central Heating Plant that will feature an electrically powered system that will capture waste heat from the existing plant and use it to produce low-pressure steam. Once operational in 2028, the project is expected to reduce on-site greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 10,500 metric tons annually—more than 12% of the campus’s total emissions.

Massachusetts officials said that less than two dozen comparable industrial heat pump systems are currently operating in the United States.

“This Leading by Example grant will enable UMass Amherst to significantly reduce our greenhouse emissions through a new industrial heat pump, which is a major component of our decarbonization effort,” UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier A. Reyes said in a press release.

UMass Boston to expand central utility plant conversion

UMass Boston was awarded $5.3 million for the initial phases of a campus-wide decarbonization program that's designed to reduce natural gas use and associated emissions by more than 50%. The university has plans to replace natural gas boilers at its central utility plant with three electric heat-shift chillers, which are expected to  use the campus’s existing seawater pump house to provide both heating and cooling.

The grant will allow the university to expand the project from one chiller to three, accelerating its fossil fuel reduction schedule by more than 15 years according to estimates. The completed project is expected to reduce on-site emissions by approximately 7,500 metric tons annually beginning in 2029.

UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco said the expanded system is projected to reduce natural gas consumption at the central utility plant by about 82%.

UMass Dartmouth extends geothermal system

UMass Dartmouth received $1.1 million to connect its auditorium to a geothermal system already being installed at the Liberal Arts and Sciences building, which will use excess heating and cooling capacity available from the system and extend the benefits of the current infrastructure investment to an additional campus building. The auditorium’s fossil fuel use is expected to drop by 50% and eliminate approximately 88 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

“This investment will allow the university to put its planning into action by reducing fossil fuel use, lowering carbon emissions, and strengthening campus energy resilience,” UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Mark A. Fuller said.

Geothermal projects advance at Salem State and Massachusetts Maritime

The Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance received $7.5 million for large-scale geothermal projects at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Salem State University, as well as a similar project planned for state-operated group homes.

The first phase of work at the two campuses will connect multiple buildings to new geothermal systems, install geothermal wells, and establish infrastructure that can support future expansion. When completed, the two campus projects are expected to slash on-site fossil fuel consumption by at least 50% and cut combined annual emissions by more than 2,500 metric tons.

State officials said the grants also will support energy upgrades at three public recreation facilities, where the planned improvements span building-envelope retrofits, rooftop solar, air-source heat pumps, variable refrigerant flow systems, and energy recovery ventilation.

Why this matters

The grants demonstrate how public institutions can use phased infrastructure investments to overcome one of the biggest barriers to campus decarbonization: the high upfront cost of replacing central fossil fuel systems.

These upcoming projects also offer insight into several strategies that may be applicable to other campuses, including capturing waste heat from central utility plants, using existing water infrastructure for thermal exchange, extending geothermal capacity to adjacent buildings, and constructing district-scale systems that can serve additional facilities over time.