Dartmouth College – Kyle Ward – 2017

Goals 

Dartmouth College enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow Kyle Ward to help meet its 2025 goal of receiving 50% of its energy from renewable sources. Dartmouth hoped to make the business case for renewable energy projects through a financial analysis on electrical energy sources, as well as dive deeper into a previous analysis on alternative thermal sources.

Solutions

Ward helped create a financial analysis model that could generate high-level data used to inform future energy-source decisions. The model also serves as a tool that can be easily altered and updated to reflect changes in real world conditions. Using this tool, Ward analyzed the costs and savings of each energy source and compared potential 50% and 100% renewable energy portfolios to the status quo. From this financial data, he recommended adding a combination of biomass and power purchase agreements into the college’s energy portfolio. 

Potential Impact

Switching to a combined heat and power woody biomass plant and a combination of onsite power purchase agreements and virtual power purchase agreements, Dartmouth could change its energy portfolio sources from 7% to 100% renewable power. Doing so could save the college $16.29 million and eliminate 1.17 million metric tons of CO2 over 20 years.