UB moves to decarbonize North Campus

There’s much excitement about how Empire AI will transform the North Campus with the addition of a supercomputing center that will provide researchers across New York State with unprecedented computing power.

But the building itself will also supply the backbone to another significant development: the university’s effort to decarbonize the campus and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions on the path to achieving carbon neutrality.

It’s all part of the North Campus Clean Energy Master Plan (CEMP), a 25-year, billion-dollar investment in UB’s largest campus. The plan seeks to update the campus’ aging infrastructure, which relies on a mix of electricity and natural gas, to an electrified system that will greatly reduce the university’s carbon emissions, decrease energy use by 30% and realize substantial savings on energy costs.

UB stakeholders worked with representatives from Wendel Companies, which also helped UB craft a decarbonization strategy implemented for the smaller South Campus, to develop the North Campus CEMP.

Gov. Kathy Hochul provided a major boost to the North Campus plan in the fall when she announced $68 million in state funding to UB, $62 million of which will go toward advancing Phase 1 of the North Campus CEMP. The remaining $6 million will be used to fund the South Campus Parker Energy Hub project.

Phase 1 of the North Campus plan will decarbonize the Baker Chilled Water Plant, the campus’ central utility facility, by constructing two 30-inch neutral temperature water pipes that will connect the Empire AI supercomputing center to the Baker plant. That work will be performed in collaboration with the New York Power Authority (NYPA).

“The world is at a tipping point with clean energy technologies such as geothermal and heat pumps beating out fossil fuel costs over the life of a project,” said SUNY Chief Sustainability Officer Carter Strickland. “UB’s North Campus decarbonization project will prove out these favorable economics in a real-world context and pilot thermal energy networks that can be adopted by cities, towns and villages across New York State. This ‘living lab’ complements SUNY research on innovative battery storage and other key elements of the clean energy economy, as well as educational and training programs that are preparing future business, tech and workforce leaders.”  

The North Campus comprises 130 buildings totaling more than 7 million square feet. The annual energy cost for the campus exceeds $16 million. When it was built in the late 1960s to early ‘70s, much of it was designed for electric resistance heating, which is much less efficient, and therefore more expensive, than today’s electric heat pump and geothermal alternatives that use electricity to move heat rather than burning fuel to create it.

Now the campus is on the precipice of a significant transformation, one that will see nearly $2 billion in capital construction over the next decade with the addition of a new engineering building and Empire AI, among other projects, making this an ideal time to think boldly.

“We have to acknowledge that the cost of doing nothing is not zero,” says Laura Hubbard, vice president for finance and administration. “Much of our heating and cooling infrastructure on the North Campus is roughly 60 years old and is approaching the end of its useful life. The North Campus CEMP provides a path for the university to maximize the amount of construction that can be done by cost effectively implementing sustainable improvements while accounting for future growth and development on campus.

“In short,” Hubbard says, “decarbonization is an investment strategy, one that when done right is the same cost, or even less expensive, over the long term than the business-as-usual approach.”

Key elements of the plan include building new infrastructure connections, modernizing heating and cooling systems, and integrating advanced technologies into both new and existing buildings, notes Tonga Pham, associate vice president for university facilities.

The core of the plan involves major updates to the Baker Chilled Water Plant, as well as new energy connections across campus and smarter systems that can adapt in real time. UB is also integrating advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize how buildings use energy in an effort to reduce waste and increase efficiency across campus.

“In the development of a CEMP, we often emphasize that the greatest value lies in the process, not solely in the final deliverable. UB’s CEMP clearly exemplifies this principle,” says Jason Denue, vice president of energy for Wendel. “Even before the plan was finalized, concrete actions were already underway to align existing initiatives with the new vision and to position the university for effective implementation of next steps.

“This progress is a direct reflection of the significant investment made by our colleagues at UB through their commitment, passion and collaborative spirit,” Denue says. “We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with you on this important journey.”

Launched in 2024 by Hochul, Empire AI is a research consortium backed by more than $500 million in public and private funding. It consists of 10 universities, including UB and other SUNY institutions, as well as several private research institutions across the state. With Empire AI, New York State is first in the nation to establish a consortium of public and private research institutions advancing AI research for the public good at this scale. UB is home to Empire AI’s supercomputing center.

In 2025, the NYPA Board of Trustees approved 15 megawatts of high load factor power that the Power Authority will procure for Empire AI on the energy market.

The North Campus CEMP captures the heat generated from the Empire AI supercomputing center and transfers it to the Baker Chilled Water Plant. This innovative strategy increases efficiency once the Empire AI initiative is fully built out, leading to lower costs across campus.

New heat exchangers and electric heat pumps will be installed in the Baker plant, which will also have expanded cooling capacity, to distribute heat to buildings on campus. Strategically located geothermal wells next to the UB Solar Strand will aid in the distribution of heat across campus.

In the summer, the Baker Chilled Water Plant, which currently has nearly 11,000 tons of cooling capacity via seven large water chillers, distributes chilled water to campus buildings through a vast underground network of pipes. The North Campus Clean Energy Master Plan leverages this infrastructure to incorporate heating. Sharing heating and cooling among buildings saves energy and money, officials say.

The project involves numerous partners.

“We are grateful for the expertise, knowledge and strategy that the Wendel team integrated into this plan, and for the collaboration among many colleagues here at UB, as well as our partners at SUNY, the New York Power Authority, Gov. Hochul and the state Legislature,” says Ryan McPherson, UB’s chief sustainability officer. “This partnership has initiated what we hope will become the largest infrastructure transformation in the university’s history.”

“The New York Power Authority is implementing comprehensive efficiency projects at campuses throughout the SUNY system that will reduce operating costs and energy use,” said NYPA EVP and COO Joe Kessler. “The Power Authority will collaborate closely with UB to implement a $62 million project to capture waste heat from Empire AI supercomputing center and use it to warm buildings across the North Campus. This ambitious project demonstrates how innovative thinking and strategic partnerships can be leveraged to deliver scalable clean energy solutions.”