In 2000, Cornell began drawing 39°F water from 250 feet below Cayuga Lake to cool its campus; The system now reduces cooling energy use by approximately 85%.
Cornell is one of the largest and most esteemed universities in the world, located on a hill overlooking the 38-mile-long Cayuga Lake with an area of 2,300 acres. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, most institutions, including Cornell, used CFC chillers. These first-generation ozone-depleting substances (ODS) were destroying the ozone layer and warming the climate. When the university had to phase out its old CFC chillers due to unreliability and CFC bans under the Montreal Protocol, researchers and engineers looked across the hillsides of campus toward the cold, deep waters of Cayuga Lake.Previously, the campus relied on conventional chillers and cooling towers to cool its campus, using about 33,000 gallons per minute. However, in 2000, the university launched its lake fountain cooling system which led to an 85% reduction in energy used to cool the campus, according to its website.
Lake source cooling
Cooling the lake’s sources is one of the most important environmental initiatives. Launched in 2000, Lake Source Cooling (LSC) upgraded the central campus chilled water system to a more environmentally sound design that conserves energy and utilizes a renewable resource, the deep, cold waters of nearby Cayuga Lake.The LSC was proposed in 1994 and approved by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in 1998. Nearly four years of environmental study and review resulted in a four-volume, 1,500-page Environmental Impact Statement that detailed the project’s potential impacts on the lake. DEC determined that LSC could provide the stated environmental benefits without harming Cayuga Lake.Construction began in March 1999 and the project was completed in 2000. The construction phase provided many benefits to the public, totaling more than $2 million in value to the taxpayers of the city and town of Ithaca and the Ithaca City School District.Initially, the entire project had a price tag of $58.5 million; It cost more than replacing the campus’s existing chillers with new ones. However, a driver of Cornell’s investment was a commitment to reducing coolant use in campus equipment to benefit the environment.
How does it work?
The positive impact
Cornell’s lake source cooling system, the first and largest in the U.S., has earned the university recognition for its leadership in sustainable energy solutions. Among the many honors received, the campus’s combined chilled water and steam/heat and power systems were collectively named IDEA System of the Year in 2001.LSC saves more than 29 million kWh per year compared to previous cooling methods, enough to offset the annual electricity used by 7,970 homes in Tompkins County and an 85% reduction in energy used to cool the campus.Now, 98% of the cooling at Cornell’s Ithaca campus is renewable and refrigerant-free. During times of peak demand and maintenance, LSC is supported by a thermal storage tank and three chillers using approved refrigerants. Since LSC is designed to last between 75 and 100 years, more than double the lifespan of typical chillers, the innovative system is a long-term, cost-effective and planet-positive solution for the university’s cooling needs.
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