Radboud University has met its energy goals for 2015. But to do the same in 2016 it should crack it up a bit, the university's Energy Annual Report 2015 shows.

In the Energy Policy 2013-2016, the university intended to save 2 percent energy every year. In the four year window, 8 percent less gas and electricity should be used. Last year, the reduction was 2,1 percent, after correction for winter temperatures. But the total reduction over the past three years is 5,1 percent, so behind on schedule.

‘Not only does that mean that we have saved too little’, says Toon Buiting, energy coordinator of the University real estate department (UVB). ‘In some areas, we have been using more. If the library expands its opening hours, that directly effects our energy use negatively. The same thing happens when we create more work spaces, or when we hang hair dryers in the sports center.’

According to Buiting, this is not always considered when decisions like these are made. ‘First and foremost, this university thinks about the quality of education and research. That is a given. My role is to point out what the consequences for our energy use are. Overall, there is room for improvement in the awareness of this theme.’

In 2016, work needs to be done to achieve the 2 percent saving, Buiting says. ‘Especially when it comes to lighting, we can do more. Ten years ago, we hung the best possible lighting in the Huygens building, but naturally, this is outdated now. There are rooms where we can save at least 40 percent on lighting.’

Water waste
When it comes to water use, a lot of improvements have been made. In 2012, we uses 178 cubic meters of water. In 2015, that was 128.000, 8 percent less than in 2014. ‘The emergency cooling that cool the servers in the Huygens building, use a couple of cubic meters of water per hour. They were often switched on without us noticing. We monitoring that more closely, and we can see that on the bill.’

There were and are a lot of construction projects going on at our campus. With the Grotius building, the new Gymnasion, and the rebuilding of the social sciences faculty and the Thomas van Aquinostraat, we can expect the energy use to decline rapidly, right? ‘That is only partially true’, says Buiting. ‘The social sciences building will become totally energy neutral. But the current buildings at Thomas van Aquinostraat have so little comfort that they use little energy. In the new buildings, we will have airconditioning, and that is not there now. That increases the energy use.’