Biomass energy is produced from organic materials, such as wood chips or miscanthus.  The Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research (CABER) focuses on bioenergy systems research, and F&S Energy Services is reviewing options for integrating biomass fuel sources into campus energy production.

The University purchases about half the electricity for campus through the wholly owned subsidiary of the University, Prairieland Energy Incorporated.  In the 2010 iCAP, we committed to being carbon-neutral by 2050.  The majority of campus emissions can be eliminated by implementing more sustainable practices and integrating renewable energy sources for the campus energy supply.  One option for integrating renewable energy sources is to purchase green power through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). 

The ECE Building includes Solar Panels on its roof. The panels provide about 11% of the building's energy needs. The infrastructure for connecting these panels to the building electric supply was included in the original design and construction costs for the full building, while the solar panels themselves were funded separately. 

The 2015 iCAP, chapter 3, objective 1 is "The Energy Generation, Purchasing, and Distribution SWATeam, in collaboration with Facilities & Services and topical Consultation Groups, will lead an exploration of options for 100% clean campus energy during FY16 and submit recommendations through the formal sustainability process." The campus community has considerable intellectual resources that can be brought to bear on the future of energy generation, purchasing, and distribution.  The

The Solar Decathlon House at the Energy Farm, called the Gable Home, is now equipped with a horizontal loop geothermal energy system. The loop is 3/4 inch.

The Fruit Farm Admin building uses geothermal energy.

Campus researchers are installing a geothermal monitoring well in the northwest corner of the John Bardeen Quad during December 2018.  The borehole will be 450 feet deep and it will allow campus to investigate the applicability of using geothermal heat exchange at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The main objective is to provide comprehensive scientific data and analysis to help our community on evaluating the potential of using ground source heat pump system in a large scale as part of campus green energy policy. 

Implementation of the Solar Research Test Bed is an important part of the research scope of the Illinois Center for a Smarter Electric Grid (ICSEG).  ICSEG’s research mission is to support the continuing development of the Smart Grid through research that tests and validates the trustworthiness (secure, reliable, private, resilient) of new components and systems that will be required to realize the full potential of the Smart Grid, and renewable energy systems such as wind and solar are critical to realizing this vision.

The goal of the ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering Building project is to achieve Platinum LEED standards and be net zero for outside energy consumption.  To meet that goal, engineers have proposed the use of solar panels atop the ECE building to offset the building’s energy consumption. Complexities of building design have resulted in the building being unable to support a sufficient number of solar arrays to generate the energy required to offset the building’s energy consumption.

The 2015 iCAP, chapter 6, objective 3, is "Utilize landfills with methane capture." Methane is one of the worst greenhouse gases, and this university has a number of methane producers on South Farms.  There are beef cows, dairy cows, sheep, pigs, horses, and chickens. One of the strategies listed in the iCAP to reduce agricultural emissions is to install a methane capture process for additional energy generation by 2020, with a pilot project by 2015.

The 2015 iCAP, chapter 3, objective 4, is "Offset all emissions from the National Petascale Computing Facility (and other successor facilities) by the conclusion of the current period of National Science Foundation support." Petascale is under the purview of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), reporting to the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research.

One potential method for acheiving the 2015 iCAP goal for on-campus solar is to retrofit existing campus buildings with rooftop solar.  The amount of sun shine on each roof, the viability of the building itself, and the funding mechanisms all need to be reviewed and resolved for this idea to be implemented.  The viability for each building includes approval from the Architectural Review Committee, agreement of the building occupant facility leaders, and structural and electrical viability for the building.  As of 2016, the financial payback for solar photovoltaics is not strong enough to ea

The 20.8 acre Solar Farm on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign South Farms is a Power Purchase Agreement with Phoenix Solar South Farms, LLC, producing an estimated 7, 864 MWh/year of solar energy used solely by the Urbana campus.

The 2015 iCAP, chapter 3, objective 2 is "Expand on-campus solar energy production.  By FY20, produce at least 12,500 MWh/year, and by FY25 at least 25,000 MWh/year, from solar installations on campus property."  Commonly used solar technologies are solar photovoltaics for electricity, solar thermal water heating, and passive solar design for space heating and cooling.

Dr. Roberta M. Johnson worked with F&S to install a garden shed at the President's House in 2018, with rooftop solar. There are 3 325Watt (W) Solar Panels, so the total solar production capacity will be 975W. 

The Student Sustainability Committee commissioned a solar photovoltaic study to determine viable buildings for the installation of solar arrays. The new solar arrays would complement the existing 3,700 square foot Solar PV array located atop the Business Instructional Facility that produces approximately 55,000 kWh/year and help define the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign as a leader in the greening of campuses nationwide.

The iCAP 2020 objective 2.3.1 is to "Use at least 140,000 MWh/year of clean power by FY25." This objective is about clean power, which is different from clean thermal energy. The responsible campus unit for championing this objective is F&S.

As of 2020, there are three types of clean power options being pursued or used on campus.

Wassaja Hall was named after the University's first Native American graduate and a pioneer in advocating for Native American rights.  A 30 kW solar PV array was installed on December 14, 2015 on the east side of the roof.

From November 2016 through October 2026, the Urbana campus will receive a percentage-based portion of the wind-generated electricity and associated environmental attributes from the Rail Splitter Wind Farm located north of Lincoln, Illinois. The power purchase agreement (PPA) specifies that 8.6% of the total wind generation from the farm will be sold to the university, which is expected to be an annual amount of more than 25,000 megawatt-hours (MWh).

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is helping to promote and encourage participation in the Solar Urbana-Champaign program. 

The successful Solar Urbana-Champaign group purchasing program is available again in 2018. Since 2016, the program led to the installation of over 2 megawatts of solar on 241 properties in Champaign, Piatt, and Vermilion Counties. The program educated over a thousand individuals about solar and helped people save on solar through volume purchasing.
 
In 2021, the program will conduct its sixth round of bulk purchasing.

According to a 2012 EPA report, 251 million tons of municipal solid waste was generated in the US and the University generates about twelve tons of trash per day. After MSW recovery through recycling and composting, plastic was the 2nd largest component (18%) behind food waste (21%) of the 164 million tons discarded in 2012. This means that huge quantities of plastics end up in landfills (29 million tons). Translating these numbers to UIUC campus MSW would mean that we are sending 1.39 tons of plastic in trash to landfill daily.

The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use. The Partnership has more than 1,700 Partner organizations voluntarily using billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually.