University of Virginia planning to phase out coal plant

At their meeting in June, the governing body of the University of Virginia will decide whether to move forward with a $38 million project to convert the heating plant to move away from the use of coal.

The Major Capital Plan is how UVA manages the planning and financing for buildings and new infrastructure. The current total amount is $2.1 billion according to Colette Sheehy, the senior vice president for operations and state government relations at UVA.

The Buildings and Grounds Committee and the Finance Committee both have a role to play in determining what projects get added. They are introduced to new projects in the winter session and take a vote in the spring. There are several potential candidates to add to the list.

“The first is a fuel conversion at the main heat plant,” Sheehy said. “Currently at the heat plant, we burn natural gas, mostly natural gas, but also coal as a backup fuel. We’d like to be able to get off of coal. And that’s what this project would allow us to do.”

Sheehy said the heat plant produces steam for use by the UVA Medical Center. UVA relies on the City of Charlottesville for natural gas and sometimes UVA’s use is curtailed.

“Right now that backup fuel is coal, which is becoming increasingly difficult to procure, costly to operate on coal, et cetera,” Sheehy said. “And so we believe that by converting off of coal, we obviously will eliminate those four lovely coal silos that are down on Main Street, as well as all the associated ash and handling facilities.”

Under this system, the backup fuel would be oil which Sheehy said would be used about 5 percent of the time.

Two other projects are an $8 million renovation of an outdoor recreation area on North Grounds as well as a $10 million renovation of a building on Millmont Street used by UVA Parking and Transportation.

“This interior renovation would really just be able to use the space there more efficiently for the expanded operation of parking and transportation, which includes, over time, a conversion to battery electric buses,” Sheehy said.

There’s also $72 million for a data center to support the Fontaine Research Park as well as $77 million for a second building for the School of Data Science. The cost of the latter is covered in part by a $41 million gift.

There was not much discussion by the Buildings and Grounds Committee. What did the Finance Committee have to say? That story coming up as I get to it!

Before you go: This is the fourth story to come out from the University of Virginia Board of Visitors meeting from March 6 and March 7 or 2025. Town Crier Productions is a one-person operation so sometimes it takes a while to get to everything. This went out in the March 10, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.