The school upgraded its water chilling system which along reduced energy consumption by 3.5 million kilowatt hours per year. When Columbia University recently partnered with the Con Edison Green Team, this institution was able to reduce their energy costs by more than $700,000 per year. They also purchase power from regional solar and wind projects. The school purchases 66 million kWh of energy made from clean wind power a year, enough to offset 60% of the school?s electricity use. The school?s Cole Student Activities Building has its own solar panels that provide 5.25 kW of energy to the building, while other efforts to replace light fixtures with energy efficient alternatives have helped the school cut down on its usage. In 2011, the school installed more than 2,600 solar panels. The school installed more than 200 occupancy sensors in classrooms and buildings across campus to save on lighting costs. When the University of Maryland found themselves with an energy bill of more than $40 million per year, they took action to reduce their energy costs. The school?s student center has 84 photovoltaic panels to generate around 23,973 kWh of electricity per year. The school?s residence halls aren?t the only buildings getting in on the energy saving action. The university installed 60 solar thermal panels on one of their buildings which produce up to 3 million BTUs per day, providing 70% of the hot water needs for that building and photovoltaic panels that rate at a total of 47.1 kW, or enough to power four homes. In 2014, one of the building?s residence halls alone was able to reduce their energy consumption by 80,000 kWh through new energy efficient practices. Some of the school?s residence halls include features such as hybrid geothermal heating and cooling systems, energy efficient windows, green roof additions, heat recovery systems and underground geothermal walls. The University of Wisconsin has six different LEED certified buildings on campus. These energy-efficient, smart labs even won the school international awards for their energy-efficiency. The school recently retrofitted all of their internal and external lighting with more energy efficient options, and started remodeling their labs to be more energy efficient, since laboratory buildings typically require 24 hour power usage. New LEED certified buildings are being constructed on campus while the school continues to promote thermal energy storage. The school has more than 11,700 solar panels throughout its campus that can generate up to 3.2 megawatts of power, or enough energy to power 1800 homes. UC Irvine reduced their energy consumption by 23 by 2013. The school met their goal seven years early and was the first educational institution to meet the objective. This all started when the school decided to take part in the Better Buildings Challenge in 2011, which challenged organizations to improve energy efficiency by 20% by the year 2020. Department for Energy and is used globally as a model for improving energy efficiency. The University of California, Irvine has an award-winning energy management program that has been recognized by the U.S. The following schools have made it to the top of the class when it comes to energy efficient practices, as they work to conserve energy used and lessen their impact on the environment. We have surveyed the efforts of some of these schools and made a list of the 25 most energy efficient colleges that will be starting classes this fall. Fortunately for students today, some of the top schools in the country are doing everything from investing in solar panels to making low-cost adjustments to change their attitudes on energy use. While electricity rates around the US vary, American colleges combined are spending almost $7 billion a year in utilities and energy costs, meaning savings of just a few percent could result in hundreds of millions of dollars for these educational programs. While each school in the United States differs slightly, there is one thing many of these schools share in common a goal to make their campuses more energy efficient. There are now approximately 5,300 colleges and universities throughout the country that will be welcoming new students this year, each with their own unique features, amenities and unique attributes. With the 2015 academic year kicking off, hundreds of thousands of students from all over the country will be heading to colleges and universities across the United States for the start of a new semester.
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