Hi there!! My name is Martin, and I'm thrilled to be a '27 blogger for People Places Pines! A small rural town in Maine called Veazie is where I call home, and I can't wait to tell you about what life at Dartmouth is like! Carving the slopes in the winter, hiking through woods in autumn, or basking in the Green in spring and summer, that's where you'll find me! Stay tuned for everything Big Green!
In this course, we covered all the basics of ecology: how organisms interact with each other and with their ecosystems. My favorite parts of the class were the labs: they took place outside and we explored ecological concepts around campus!
This course was on everything energy: how we use it, how we generate it, and how we can improve our current energy systems in light of climate change. We visited nearby energy systems, including Dartmouth's very own heating and energy facilities. This course was awesome!
This was a project-based class where we chose an important issue and then designed a solution, using the principles and methods we learned in class. My group made a smart trash can to make recycling easier!
Transforming Energy Systems (EARS 21) and Dartmouth's Energy Future
This term, I've been taking a class called Transforming the Energy System: Keeping the Lights on While Saving the Planet. It's an awesome class (my favorite so far) about renewable energy, climate change policy, and the overall global energy transition, with a focus on Dartmouth's energy transition.
I've been involved with energy here at Dartmouth as a First-Year Fellow, at the Irving Institute, and most recently through my Transforming Energy Systems (EARS 21) course. Transforming Energy Systems is an awesome class because classes are about 50% lectures and 50% labs, which usually involve field trips and activities outside of the classroom around Dartmouth! Here are some cool things we've been doing this term:
Dartmouth Chilled Water Plant Tour:
I toured Dartmouth's chilled water plants a few weeks ago with my class. These plants provide chilled water to several campus buildings through an underground chilled water distribution system. This trip was one of the labs for my Energy Systems course: taking notes on Dartmouth's heating and cooling systems and writing about it in our lab handouts. It was a great way to learn about energy and how it works in the real world—in this case, on our campus! Take a look at some pictures below!
Here's a picture of my class touring Dartmouth's Chilled Water Plant. Scott Hening (Energy Program Manager at Dartmouth) explains how the system works.
Dartmouth Heating Plant and Steam Tunnels Tour:
Although this wasn't through my Transforming Energy Systems class, my friend Xavier and I recently took a tour of Dartmouth's centrally-located heating plant and underground steam tunnels. The tour was through the Dartmouth Energy Alliance, a club I've recently become involved with that's focused on helping students broaden their understanding of the energy sector and climate change.
Dartmouth's campus is heated through the Dartmouth Heating Plant, most recognizable through the tall smoke stack you can spot from some spots on campus. The plant was started in 1898, making it the oldest continuously operating co-generational (meaning it produces heat and energy) plant in the country. Just a few days ago, I got to tour it!
Here's a picture of Abbe Bjorklund (Director of Engineering and Utilities at Dartmouth) explaining to my friend Xavier how the combustion boiler system works.
The plant itself provides up to forty percent of the campus' electricity during the winter months, operating 24 hours a day all year round. We got to see the plant's boilers and turbine generators on the tour, as well as the steam tunnels that run underneath campus, carrying heat to the majority of our buildings here at Dartmouth.
In my Transforming Energy Systems class, we've been learning a lot about Dartmouth's future in energy and sustainability. In the coming years, Dartmouth will be transitioning away from these standard heating methods we've used for so long. Instead, Dartmouth will transition from the current steam system to a low-temperature hot water system involving geothermal technology. In other words, Dartmouth will move to a more renewable electric-driven system instead of a combustion-driven one.
Here's a picture of the steam tunnels we toured, hidden underground beneath campus and heating our buildings!
I've loved my Transforming Energy Systems class so far! I've learned a lot about renewable energy and climate change, as well as what that looks like for the future of sustainability at Dartmouth. If you come to Dartmouth, I certainly recommend this class! I hope this blog post shows you more about Dartmouth's exciting courses and gives you some information about energy and sustainability at Dartmouth!
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
