MORRISVILLE, NY—Big things are on the horizon for Morrisville State College.
The college was awarded $12.9 million through the SUNY 2020 initiative to build a new 35,000-square-foot alternative fuels building.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the grant for the building during her visit Sept. 30, which was part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “Capital for a Day” program.
The new building will house Morrisville State College’s renewable energy, diesel technology and agricultural engineering programs, in addition to its Renewable Energy Training Center (RETC).
The proposed site is located adjacent to the college’s dairy complex.
“This partnership represents a step forward for Morrisville by offering another opportunity to support the development and economic needs of New York State,” said Morrisville State College President David Rogers.
The alternative fuels facility will be a state-of-the-art building with industry specific components to train students and the workforce in high-demand areas including biofuels, electrical power generation with digesters and wood gasification engine-generator sets, gearing systems, transmissions, and electrical theory involving wind, solar and micro-hydro systems.
“I want to tell you how important you are to our entire ecosystem in bringing back the New York State economy,” Hochul said. “For more than a decade, this institution (MSC) has been at the forefront of educating leaders in the area of renewable energy, diesel technology and alternative fuels. We are so proud to take that to a new level.”
With the construction of the new alternative fuels building, collaborations and support will be enhanced for key programs. The college’s degree programs in renewable energy; certificates and training through the MSC Renewable Energy Training center; dairy complex (the location of a farm-scale anaerobic digester and two wind turbines); controlled environmental agriculture (CEA) aquaponics greenhouse at the MSC Aquaculture Center; campus-produced biodiesel; bench-scale anaerobic digesters in the bioenergy lab; eight residential-scale wind turbines; five biomass gasifiers and boilers; solar PV arrays; solar thermal providing hot water; and micro hydroelectric system on the MSC Galbreath Farm, will all benefit from the ability to collaborate in a shared space in the alternative fuels building.
The SUNY 2020 grants are an initiative to promote economic growth across the state and to strengthen the academic programs of the state’s public universities and colleges.
Morrisville State’s curricula are enriched with applied learning and pave the way for opportunity at both the Morrisville and Norwich campuses. An action-oriented, interactive learning lab, the college is a national leader in technology and has been lauded for its exemplary, innovative and effective community service programs.
The college was ranked among the Best Regional Colleges in the North by U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges 2016 issue and was also recognized in the Top Public Schools, Regional Colleges North in the 2016 Best Colleges rankings.