Steam plant construction underway
A new steam plant is taking shape on the northeastern corner of St. Luke’s campus.
The project is made possible thanks in part to a $4.65 million dollar grant obtained by St. Luke’s Health Care Foundation and Coe College to construct a shared steam heating plant. The assistance comes from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) funds provided to help recover from last summer’s flood disaster.
Since the flood of June 2008 destroyed the Alliant Energy steam plant, steam has been generated using temporary boilers. St. Luke’s and Coe College formed a partnership after the flood to find a permanent, cost-effective, high-efficiency, reliable and environmentally superior solution for hot water and heating needs.
This project is a USGBC or "LEED" project, which means it’s registered with the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED projects encourage and accelerate global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices. The new plant will be powered by natural gas and will be able to run on diesel fuel as a backup to provide redundancy.
The steam plant is slated to be complete in July.
