Ball State’s Tall, Brick Smokestacks Coming Down, Signaling an End to the School’s Coal Era
Ball State is graduating – from the coal age to the geothermal age. Its degree program is nearly finished, brick by brick.
Crew members from the Gerald Chimney Company of St. Louis are dismantling the two, tall, brick, smokestacks of the university’s coal-fired boiler plant.
It is one of the last acts of Ball State’s $83-million closed-loop, geothermal system installation – the largest system of its kind in the nation.
The campus-wide conversion project started in 2009. Coal-fired boilers, used to heat and cool the campus, were shut down in 2014. The smokestacks will be fully gone by August 26th.