Ohio University Lausche Heating Plant

Lausche Heating Plant is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Ohio University (OU) on its campus in Athens, Ohio. It was built in 1967, and supplies heat to all University buildings. Lausche has three coal-fired boilers and one natural gas boiler and, according to the OU Website, "coal use is always predominant because it is significantly - about four times - less expensive than natural gas." In 2007 the plant received 31,164 tons of coal from Sands Hill Coal Company in Hamden, Ohio.

In March 2011, the Ohio University administration made a promise not to consider coal as an energy source for a new heating plant. The administration has said that it must replace the Lausche facility by the year 2016, as the useful life of its boilers draws to a close.

Pollution controls
OU is located within an area characterized as "within attainment" by Title V of the EPA's Clean Air Act, exempting the plant from having certain pollution controls, such as scrubbers to abate sulfur dioxide emissions. However, in order to comply with regulations, flue gases do travel through baghouses that catch fly ash and particulate matter.

Coal Source
Electricity for Ohio University is purchased primarily from American Electric Power Ohio, whose coal-fired power plants burn primarily high sulfur coal. About 10% of the coal AEP buys each year comes from mountaintop removal mines, according to a 2005 statement by AEP spokesman Pat Hemlepp. In 2007, the plant received 31,164 tons of coal from Sands Hill Coal Company in Hamden, Ohio.

Plant Data

 * Owner: Ohio University Facilities Management
 * Parent Company: State of Ohio
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 1.0 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 1.0 MW (1964)
 * Location: Factory St., Athens, OH 45701
 * GPS Coordinates: 39.326725, -82.108774
 * Electricity Production:
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * CO2 Emissions:
 * SO2 Emissions: 1,140 tons (2002)
 * SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * NOx Emissions: 154 tons (2002)
 * Mercury Emissions:

External Resources

 * Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005, Energy Information Administration, accessed Jan. 2009.
 * Environmental Integrity Project, "Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants", July 2007.
 * Facility Registry System, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed Jan. 2009.
 * Carbon Monitoring for Action database, accessed Feb. 2009.
 * NETL Coal Power Plant Database, National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2007.
 * AirData Query Database, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed April 2009.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Campus coal plants
 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Ohio and coal
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming