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Legislators tour the Power Plant and learn about the UW’s decarbonization strategy

This week, Reps. Davina Duerr and Alex Ramel and Anna Lising, Senior Climate Advisor to Gov. Jay Inslee, visited the UW Seattle campus and took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Power Plant. The tour showcased the Seattle campus’ existing energy infrastructure and unveiled the University’s innovative clean energy transformation strategy.

The UW Seattle energy system has served the campus for well over 100 years, but its age makes it costly to maintain and its dependence on steam and fossil fuels no longer aligns with the University’s sustainability values. To address these challenges, the University has put together a five-part strategy that prioritizes energy efficiency, transforms heating and cooling, and finds alternatives to steam for medical and research equipment sterilization. The plan also focuses on innovative opportunities such as sewer heat recovery, deep lake cooling and heating, and thermal energy storage.

To learn more about the team leading the University’s efforts to being 100 percent carbon neutral and the strategy, see this article.

Thank you, Reps. Duerr and Ramel and Anna, for touring the Power Plant and learning about the University’s decarbonization strategy!