District Cooling

The Cornell University Chilled Water System has been in operation since the early 1960’s. It operates year-round, producing approximately 40 million ton-hours of cooling each year for research processes as well as for general air conditioning of laboratory space, computer rooms, lecture/teaching areas and common spaces. The system serves 80 buildings totaling over 4.5 million square feet of air-conditioned space, about 40% of the core campus. It delivers approximately 20,000 tons of cooling capacity at peak demand, circulating about 33,000 gallons per minute.

Cornell uses a "district energy" model, and today's system is one of the most energy-efficient systems in the world.  It is also almost completely "renewable" via the Lake Source Cooling plant.