EPFL takes another step towards carbon neutrality

Thanks to its new thermal power plant, the EPFL site in Lausanne is a zero-oil campus, virtually gas-free and mostly renewable. ©Alain Herzog/EPFL Today EPFL inaugurated its new heating plant, which has the capacity to heat and cool the Lausanne campus solely by drawing water from Lake Geneva and recovering excess heat from a connected data center. The ceremony was attended by local political leaders including Vassilis Venizelos, who is a Vaud Canton councilor and the head of the Canton's department of youth, the environment and security. The plant - some three years in the making - marks a major step towards the School's goal of becoming carbon neutral. EPFL began renovating the heating and cooling facilities at its Lausanne campus in 2019 after they had become obsolete. "Our School has long been a pioneer in making efficient use of energy resources," says Matthias Gäumann, EPFL's Vice President for Operations. "We installed the first lake-water-fed cooling system in the late 1970s, and in 1986 we began heating parts of the Lausanne campus with lake water, too.