Wake Tech East Central Energy Plant

The first building on Wake Tech East Community College’s seventh campus demonstrates a cutting-edge integration of energy technologies, maximizing efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. Salas O’Brien provided project management, 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 new 106-acre campus, also referred to as Eastern Wake 4.0, was designed for the fourth industrial revolution of networked intelligent machines and processes composing the “internet of things.” Wake Tech East will start offering associate degree programs in engineering, including energy management in August 2024.

Awards
2023 Green Globes Project of the Year
2023 City of Raleigh Climate Action Award for Energy