Berea College is a remarkable place. When it was founded in 1855 — just six years before the Civil War erupted — it was the first interracial and coeducational in the South. You may know that the College’s 1650 students do not pay tuition, and haven’t since 1892; the school covers its expenses with returns on its endowment (74%), Federal and State funding and other income (17%), and donations (9%).
What you may not know is that Berea College is also committed to sustainability. They’ve pumped more than $100 million into ecological renovations since 2002, and their Ecovillage provides sustainable housing and a “food forest” for 50 student families. They harvest their own wood from the College’s forest, and the Berea College Farm (now in its sesquicentennial year) produces more than 47,000 pounds of organic food each year.
Well, the College has now taken the next step in its pursuit of sustainability — and it’s a big one. In partnership with Appalachian Hydro Associates, the College has just completed the first college-owned hydropower facility in the US. The facility took over Lock and Dam 12 on the Kentucky River near Ravenna, KY, which had been abandoned since the early 1990s.
The Lexington Herald-Leader described several of the “firsts” involved in the hydro plant:
There are a lot of firsts at a new hydroelectric generating station on the Kentucky River in Estill County. It’s the first hydroelectric project in the nation completed by a college, for example.
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It’s also the first new small hydroelectric project in the state in more than 90 years, the first to use submersible turbine-generators, and the first new hydroelectric plant in the nation to employ variable speed turbine-generators, a technology borrowed from wind turbines that allows them to operate more efficiently.
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Other universities are working on hydroelectric projects, including Notre Dame, but Berea was the first to finish one.
The output of the hydropower facility — enough to power 1200 homes, on average — will offset roughly half of the electricity Berea College consumes. The College will sell the electricity to Jackson Energy Cooperative at a discount, but the long-term return on investment is projected to be around 9%. Thanks to various “clean energy” tax credits, the ultimate construction cost will be under $3 million.
With the facility finally online, the reduced need for coal-burning electricity generation will cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 11,000 tons per year. The president of the College framed it like this:
Roelofs, a physicist by training, said one key attraction of the project was the ability to cancel a big chunk of the college’s contribution to carbon emissions from electricity produced by burning coal.
Roelofs said the project fits with one of Berea’s governing commitments which hearkens back to the low-impact lifestyle common in Appalachia when Berea was founded. In the 21st Century, the college thinks of it as a commitment to sustainability, Roelofs said. “Now we are trying to have a minimal impact on the climate and the environment that everyone shares.”
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“Just the fact that we’re generating the equivalent of half the power we use on campus without burning a lick of coal is the biggest plus in all of this.”
Oh, and they didn’t forget the local community, either:
The project includes a covered pavilion with picnic tables, a portage people can use to carry canoes and kayaks around the lock and dam, and an area where people can park to go fishing.
All in all, it’s a good day for green energy in Kentucky.