image: Tufts is specifically investing in the Big Elm Solar project in Bell County, Texas, which will deliver electricity to the local electrical grid in Texas. Investing in clean-energy development in Texas has a greater impact on “greening” the grid there than in Massachusetts, which has a much higher renewable-energy saturation.
Credit: Illustration: Elles Giancostas
Tufts University marked a milestone on its path to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 when it announced today its participation in a project that reduces its Boston health sciences campus energy-related emissions by 40%.
The project is the Consortium for Climate Solutions, a group that includes Tufts and other Boston-based institutions, who together are pioneering a strategy for broadening access to large-scale renewable energy projects.
Aiming to serve as a scalable model for advancing the national energy transition, the consortium is considered an unprecedented collaboration, insofar as it brings together higher-education institutions, healthcare systems, the City of Cambridge, and nonprofit organizations in Greater Boston.
The university is focused on achieving net-zero carbon emissions on all its campuses no later than 2050, according to an expanded commitment by the Tufts Sustainability Council. Solar onsite at Tufts is also part of the equation, including both roof-mounted solar installations and, at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, solar arrays. The addition of a solar VPPA allows Tufts to multiply its use of renewable energy without being constrained by the space limitations of its campuses.
Other investments in shrinking the university’s carbon footprint include the central energy plant‘s use of energy-efficient cogeneration technology, and Tufts’ commitment to the highest energy-efficiency standards in new construction and in modernizing older buildings.
Through the consortium, the university will purchase an estimated 20,000 megawatt-hours of solar power by 2026, enough to power an estimated 1,800 homes a year.
Dano Weisbord, AG01, chief sustainability officer and executive director of campus planning, noted that Tufts’ support for large-scale renewable energy projects makes sense, given the global goal of net zero emissions by 2050 as set by the Paris Agreement.
“Tufts is pursuing strategies that promote global sustainable development,” said Weisbord. “The consortium is a model for using markets to purchase electricity from new zero-carbon sources. It is also a tool to educate and challenge our students to become climate leaders by helping to build and implement our path to decarbonization.”
Other members of the consortium are purchasing energy generated by a wind project in North Dakota. Through both virtual power purchase agreements, in Texas and North Dakota, the consortium’s procurement is spurring the development of 408 MW of new renewable energy. Together, both solar and wind projects will provide new sources of clean electricity to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and generate collective green power equal to the electricity use of 130,000 homes for each year of the 15-year duration of the contracts.
Harvard University, MIT, and Mass General Brigham collectively procured the largest volume of energy (both wind and solar), making it possible for smaller buyers, including Tufts, to join in with access to the same negotiated rates and competitive terms as the larger buyers.
PowerOptions played a critical role in expanding the consortium to include the City of Cambridge, Beth Israel Lahey Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Mass Convention Center Authority, the Museum of Fine Arts, and WGBH. 3Degrees, a leading global climate solutions provider, facilitated the agreements.
Tufts’ participation builds on university-wide efforts to reduce reliance on carbon-burning fuels and build sustainable operations and infrastructure, as outlined in the most recent Sustainability Report, produced by the Office of Sustainability.
For its participation in the initiative, Tufts receives Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) that account for a reduction of about 12% of the university’s carbon emissions, bringing Tufts significantly closer to reaching its own decarbonization goal.
Mike Howard, Tufts’ executive vice president, said the consortium is an opportunity for Tufts and other institutions to amplify their impact while offering the financial advantages of aggregation: better economies of scale, negotiating leverage, and shared expenses.
“Together, the consortium offers a significant impact on the carbon-reduction goals of the City of Boston and surrounding area. This is the scale of collaboration that is necessary to build the nation’s clean energy capacity,” said Howard. “Large-scale renewable projects are critical to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. Tufts is a natural ally in making this progress possible, and we hope, collectively, we will inspire others to form similar collaborations.”
Tina Woolston, director of the Office of Sustainability, has led Tufts’ participation in the consortium, which was formed in 2020 to leverage collective purchasing power to invest in renewable energy projects via a procurement model known as virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs). VPPA contracts allow consortium members to expedite the development of new renewable-energy projects in targeted regions across the country to advance large-scale clean-energy development.
Tufts is specifically investing in the Big Elm Solar project in Bell County, Texas, which will deliver electricity to the local electrical grid in Texas. Compared to Massachusetts, Texas has a higher percentage of electricity generated from burning fossil fuels. Investing in clean-energy development in Texas has a greater impact on “greening” the grid there than doing it in a state like Massachusetts, which has a much higher renewable-energy saturation.