AMHERST — On Earth Day in 2022, University of Massachusetts Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy announced an ambitious to goal to make the Amherst campus net-zero for carbon emissions, prioritizing sustainability throughout all of its operations.

A year after unveiling the UMass Carbon Zero initiative, campus leaders ceremonially broke ground on the $125 million Sustainable Engineering Laboratories project, a 78,000-square-foot building that will not only meet a net zero goal of being powered through renewable energy, but will also be a site for innovative research aimed at confronting the global climate crisis and promoting a clean energy future.

“The focus of the SEL is not only on conducting cutting-edge research and developing novel clean energy solutions, but also on ensuring that those solutions are equitable, accessible and beneficial to all members of society,” said Sanjay Raman, dean of the College of Engineering, at Monday’s event at the Engineering Quad.

Leveraging and attracting public and private investment, and ensuring that UMass will be a top 25 nationally ranked engineering university, the new building will prepare students for the growing clean energy workforce in the state and nation, training and focusing them on solutions using green technology.

The Sustainable Engineering Laboratories will bring together under one roof existing programs, including the Wind Energy Center, the Energy Transition Institute and the UMass Transportation Center, emphasizing collaboration and innovation among the students and faculty. Also part of the labs will be an energy data and operations center, ocean energy and energy storage laboratories, and the autonomous vehicle technology laboratory.

Specifically, the new  building will include test beds for efficient and equitable methodologies to generate, distribute, use and store energy; a smart microgrid to couple new renewable energy generation and storage technologies to real-life use; and an energy operations center that integrates data from the campus and the surrounding region, a sort of living lab to study and implement sustainable solutions.

Subbaswamy describes the vision as a campus hub for pioneering research and education that will allow UMass ato expand retention and recruitment of students and faculty.  When its doors open in a few years, it will be one of the first carbon-neutral geothermal buildings on campus.

“We are reaffirming and expanding the university’s leadership role in addressing the global climate crisis,” Subbaswamy said. “It will be a living laboratory and campus hub for pioneering research and education in clean energy and sustainable engineering.”

“It’s a great day to be an optimist,” Subbaswamy said.

While several gathered were photographed as they placed shovels in a pile of dirt, the actual work on the building isn’t expected to get underway until later this year, for an opening likely sometime in 2026, said Tilman Wolf, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and associate chancellor for Space and Capital Planning.

When complete, the building, which will rise on an open parcel and a small parking lot adjacent to the Engineering Quad, will become an entry point to the portion of campus where many of the current buildings were constructed a few years after World War II and in the 1960s.

The project is being funded through the UMass Building Authority.

Mary Burns, a member of the trustees who chairs the authority, said work at the Sustainable Engineering Laboratories will lead to both a healthier planet and workforce. Barbara Kroncke, executive director of the authority, said the building is part of a $2.1 billion growth plan for the five UMass campuses.

“SEL will serve as a model to aggressively respond to the effects of climate change,” Kroncke said, adding that the aim is to make it the first campus building that is certified LEED Platinum.

Krish Thiagarajan Sharman, professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, recalled that the Wind Energy Center pioneered by William Heronemus, who headed the department of civil engineering and is considered the father of modern wind power.  In the 1970s, Heronemus helped found the Wind Power Group and unveiled the Solar Habitat One house, a building powered by a large windmill located near the water tanks off East Pleasant Street. 

While wind power has migrated from smaller windmills to the much larger wind turbines, Sharman said the new building could do much the same for increasing waves and tidal power. “SEL will undoubtedly serve UMass in growth in the sustainable energy and materials program,” Sharman said.

A doctoral student in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Vivian Ogechni Nwadiaru, whose focus is on energy storage, said the new space can inspire students and faculty to environmental justice, and combat a changing climate through research and solutions. 

“I am confident the Sustainable Engineering Laboratories would help us rise to the challenge,” Nwadiaru said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>