As a part of the extensive University of California (UC) system, UC Davis needed to meet some ambitious system-wide sustainability goals: to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, despite an ever-growing campus, and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. The university was also contending with separate heating and cooling networks, which required costly regular maintenance.
As the university defined the future of its campus heating and cooling network, Ecosystem was proud to be a member of the team steering the master planning process. The goal was to determine the best path for a dynamic, growing campus – whether it would be preferable to invest in the existing steam system or to move to another technology. Solutions considered included steam to hot water conversion, heat recovery chillers, geothermal heating and cooling, air source heat pumps, and solar PV.
A Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) helped to determine which solution, or combination of solutions, was the most economically beneficial in the long term, taking into consideration capital expenditures, operations and maintenance costs, energy costs, and carbon costs.