The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign built a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) tank for the Campus Chilled Water System
(CCWS). The tank is located on South Oak Street in Champaign, adjacent to the NCSA Petascale Computing Facility.

The 6.5 million gallon tank will help meet ~7,000 tons of additional cooling requirements for building projects being completed in 2010.
Anticipated loads include:

The University is working on biogasification in collaboration with the City of Rantoul.

Biogasification is converting biomass into biogas. Burning biomass can cause pollution in the environment, but biogas (a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide) burns more cleanly. Anaerobic digestion is one way to complete biogasification.

The Physical Plant Service Building (PPSB) is uniquely positioned parallel to the Stadium, with a long, flat roof. As a highly visible rooftop, this building may be an opportunity to test out verticals rooftop wind turbines. The turbines could be painted to represent the Big Ten school colors. These turbines could be designed and built in cooperation with faculty and students on campus. 

Wind-turbines can be installed on top of a roof of a building. These rooftop wind turbines constitute one percent of the renewable energy market, and have a huge potential in urban and suburban areas. There is not a large market for them yet, but the benefits of these wind systems can include independence from the grid, and payback periods as little as five years. They demonstrate that it is possible for an individual residence to acheive 20 percent wind power in less than a year.

The Student Sustainability Committee commissioned a solar photovoltaic study to determine viable buildings for the installation of solar arrays. The new solar arrays would complement the existing 3,700 square foot Solar PV array located atop the Business Instructional Facility that produces approximately 55,000 kWh/year and help define the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign as a leader in the greening of campuses nationwide.

Several opportunities have been identified to integrate sustainability into the University’s educational mission, including a preliminary set of learning outcomes requiring each graduating student to obtain a core competency on sustainability. These competencies, such as knowledge of how food, water, energy, and material goods affect human societies and ecosystems, are designed to prepare students for leadership roles as society prepares for the climate challenge.

Development of the learning outcomes for sustainability at Illinois

The learning outcomes for campus sustainability coursework were developed by the Sustainability Education Task Force, a committee of faculty, staff and students from diverse units across campus, which was appointed by the Chancellor and Provost. The learning outcomes were drafted to be: