College’s Renovated Central Plant Creates Opportunities For Energy Research
GREENVILLE, SC — "We were looking for new approaches in the energy market and were ready to consider a lot of new ideas.” In this way Jeffrey Hinson of Clemson University in South Carolina describes the process followed by the university in establishing a central electric generation and chilled water facility. Hinson is the director of utility services at the university.
The Clemson campus is also the home for the South Carolina Institute for Energy Studies (SCIES), which in partnership with the university planned to create an Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) adjacent to the existing Central Energy Facility. Lawrence Golan, director of SCIES, commented, “Our goal was to make the campus a real-world energy laboratory. As the plans developed for the central plant improvements, we saw the opportunity to integrate this facility with the university’s mission for research and teaching.”