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Stanford has had a long-term commitment
to reducing its energy use, but also the carbon emissions
associated with its energy use.
We think it's important because we think climate change
and greenhouse gases are critical for the future
of our survival of our population.
We decided early on that we wanted
to follow the university's tradition of doing things
in a bold way, so we decided to do something
that no other university has tried-- in fact,
no other large institution has yet tried.
I would describe SESI as a transformation of Stanford
from a very modern and well-run energy system of the '80s
and '90s to, really, the energy system
of the 21st century for universities.
Stanford is a place of culture, where
exploration and innovation is expected,
and it transcends beyond just teaching and research.
It bleeds over into operations, and it's
a great opportunity for myself and my team
to strive to do great things.
That's where we really started our efforts in 2008.
We got this full picture of energy use,
and we compared our annual heating and cooling
hour by hour, we found an incredible 75% overlap.
We found that 75% of the year, we are producing as much heat
and sending it out to the buildings for their use
as we were receiving heat back from the buildings
and discharging to the atmosphere as waste
via evaporative cooling.
My jaw really hit the desk.
I knew right then we had this great opportunity looking
at us to recover all this waste heat
and use it for the university.
When we began the project, we wanted
to do something that was ambitious,
but we also wanted to do something
that we knew would work.
Once we deployed both SESI and our green energy source
for electricity, which will be based on photovoltaics,
we will then achieve a reduction far exceeding, for example,
California's 2030 goals for reduction.
Articulating the clear motivations
for how it would save money, how it would improve the university
standing in terms of environment,
how it would help us dramatically accelerate
our ability to reach the goals that California
and the federal government have set for greenhouse gas
emissions-- when we put that all together, I
think it was clear to everybody this was a project
that we had to do.
At Stanford, 25% of our drinking water
is used today at that central energy facility for evaporative
cooling to reject excess heat from the co-generation unit,
as well as to reject the heat from our cooling system.
Well, by not rejecting that heat with evaporative cooling
and instead reusing with these heat pump machines,
you don't use the water, and we'll be saving about 70%
of the water we use at our central plant, which
means saving about 15% to 18% of the total water use
on campus in the process.
You just have to want to do it.
You have to have a positive outlook, can-do attitude.
And so go innovate.
Find a way to do it.
Don't accept the status quo.
SESI, of course, is providing energy for our university
for decades to come in a very sustainable way.
And in doing that, it provides a great educational opportunity
for our students to understand how systems work,
to understand how we make the trade offs
and look for co-benefits in decision making,
and to understand the technology of a really advanced system
that makes sense for energy and for the environment.
We think it will be a monumental point for Stanford not
only to talk about the importance of the environment
and doing something about climate change,
but to actually walk the walk and show that you can do it
in a cost effective, meaningful manner that moves us forward.