UC Berkeley electric heating plant replacing steam system begins construction this year
The UC Berkeley electric heating plant replacing steam system broke ground this year, the first phase of the Clean Energy Campus Utility Improvement Project, a plan that runs through 2030. Phase 1 builds an Electrified Heating and Cooling Plant underground beneath North Field, with a recreation field built on its roof, next to a 2 million gallon tank of hot and cold water that stores heat so the system runs more reliably. Pipes carrying hot and cold water, not steam, will connect to about 30 energy intensive buildings across campus. UC Berkeley says its current setup, a cogeneration plant that burns fuel to make electricity and steam heat together, plus the pipes that distribute that steam, has become too costly and hard to keep repairing.
This article calculates each bar position by counting years from mid 2026, when construction begins, using the season and year the project states for each part, so bar lengths are rounded to the nearest year rather than precise to the month.
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| Utility relocation | Summer 2026 to spring 2027 |
| EHCP and thermal storage | Spring 2027 to summer 2029 |
| Piping distribution | Summer 2027 to summer 2029 |
| Building conversions | Summer 2028 to summer 2030 |
What 270 million dollars from California actually pays for
UC Berkeley own frequently asked questions page states that the State of California is funding a majority of Phase 1, to the tune of 270 million dollars. Reading that page directly matters, because it never calls 270 million dollars the total cost of Phase 1, only the state share of most of it, and no page on the project site states a full Phase 1 total. An earlier 2023 estimate covered a broader, unphased version of the whole clean energy initiative at a different total figure, before the university split the work into the phased plan it describes today. This article uses the figure the project states now, not that older total.
UC Berkeley forecasts a 60% cut in campus carbon emissions by the end of phase 1
UC Berkeley currently forecasts a reduction of more than 60% in campus wide greenhouse gas emissions, gases that trap heat and warm the planet, by the end of Phase 1, when the existing cogeneration plant stops producing steam. 2 separate pages of the university own project site, its frequently asked questions and a joint announcement from Vice Chancellor Marc Fisher and Associate Vice Chancellor Sally McGarrahan, state that same figure independently. Fisher and McGarrahan describe what the new plant means for the campus in their own words. Kira Stoll, UC Berkeley chief sustainability officer, describes the scale of the change in her own words too.
UC Berkeley forecasts a reduction of more than 60%, so the true remaining share could be smaller than 40%. This article calculates 40 by subtracting the forecast from 100, a number the source does not state directly.
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| Forecasted reduction | 60 |
| Remaining emissions | 40 |
This is not merely a project to replace aging pipes.
Marc Fisher and Sally McGarrahan, UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Administration and Associate Vice Chancellor Facilities Services, who signed the campuswide project announcement together. Source 3.
We're taking a whole campus and transforming it.
Kira Stoll, UC Berkeley chief sustainability officer. Source 4.
UC Berkeley is 1 of 3 UC campuses phasing out fossil fuel heating
The wider University of California system names UC Berkeley as 1 of 3 campuses, alongside Davis and Santa Cruz, working to phase out fossil fuel heating. Beyond the new electrified plant, UC Berkeley plans solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells and batteries campus wide for backup power during outages. Engineering professor Kenichi Soga is separately researching geothermal boreholes drilled beneath University House as another way to pull heat from the ground.