Eastern Wake 4.0 Central Energy Plant

The first building on Wake Technical Community College’s seventh campus demonstrates a cutting-edge integration of energy technologies, maximizing efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. Salas O’Brien provided planning and design of the central energy plant, geo-exchange system, and campus-wide piping distribution system.

Our strategy included the use of scroll and centrifugal heat pump chillers providing low temperature hot water and chilled water for the new campus. This system uses renewable energy, via geo-exchange technology with 297 ground bores and solar PV with 283 building-mounted panels to provide a portion of the system’s electrical supply. The name of the new 106-acre campus refers the fourth industrial revolution of networked intelligent machines and processes composing the “internet of things.” Eastern Wake 4.0 will open to students in fall 2023, offering associate degrees in engineering, including energy management.