At UC Berkeley, electricity and steam are generated by burning natural gas - but a renewable energy future is right around the corner. This week, we spoke to Sally McGarrahan, Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Services, about how the university is advancing towards a carbon free campus through clean energy innovation. For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/building-berkeleys-clean-energy-campus-with-sally-mcgarrahan/
In July 2025, the University of California Board of Regents approved a plan to modernize UC Berkeley’s energy infrastructure by replacing its aged steam system with efficient, all-electric heating and cooling systems.
Today, 90% of Berkeley’s power comes from the combustion of natural gas at UC Berkeley’s costly and outdated fossil gas cogeneration plant. However, the plant is nearing the end of its life: it has less than a decade of life left, and is a source of frequent, costly, and disruptive repairs on campus (UC Berkeley Clean Energy Campus). In an effort to build a more sustainable future, the plan seeks to phase out fossil fuel use for powering, heating, and cooling campus buildings by 2035 or sooner.
Advantages
The plan is primarily funded by a capital investment from the State of California, and will be conducted in 3 phases. Phase 1, which will take place from mid-2026 through 2030, will electrify Berkeley’s heating and cooling plant, upgrade electrical infrastructure, improve thermal energy storage, distribute heated and chilled water through an underground system, and update the accessibility of landscaping and pathways on campus (UC Berkeley Clean Energy Campus). The plan not only predicts a 70% reduction in carbon emissions from campus buildings by 2028 and a 59% reduction in campus-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 and promotion of energy resilience, but also promises to create new employment and training opportunities, distributing the benefits of clean energy across the campus and the local community (CEC First Phase Underway).
The project’s primary priority is the establishment of an Electrified Heating and Cooling Plant (EHCP). The new system, rather than relying on steam and natural gas, will develop a fully functional clean energy microgrid. A major component of this includes a “new central electrified heating and cooling plant capable of serving more than 12 million square feet of building space,” located underneath a new recreational field (CEC First Phase Underway). The plant functions primarily through a “geothermal” mechanism: an underground heat exchange will distribute hot and chilled water throughout campus to heat and cool buildings (Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative).
UC Berkeley is not alone in its goals to phase out fossil fuels — both UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz — are making similar long-term plans for transitioning to renewable energy sources (University of California). Each of the individual campus’ goals align with the UC system’s new climate policy, which aims to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions across all ten campuses by 2045 (University of California).
Drawbacks
While the plan would undoubtedly make strides in UC Berkeley’s plans to reduce their carbon footprint, its success is not guaranteed. Of the $700 million required to complete the plan, UC Berkeley has currently secured $270 million (Cal Alumni Association). In order to ensure the project is seen through, pressure on campus leadership and the State of California to maintain continued funding is critical.
Sally McGarrahan oversees the Berkeley Clean Energy Campus Project at UC Berkeley’s Office of Facility Services. Before joining UC Berkeley, she held executive positions at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the City of San José, and the City of Oakland, where she managed large utility systems, capital programs, and public works departments.
ETHAN ELKIND: I’m Ethan Elkind, and you’re listening to Climate Break — climate solutions in a hurry. Today’s proposal: transitioning university campuses to 100% renewable energy. We spoke to Sally McGarrahan at UC Berkeley’s Office of Facility Services, where she oversees the Berkeley Clean Energy Campus Project.
SALLY MCGARRAHAN: UC Berkeley acts as its own municipality. We burn natural gas in the co-generation plant and that provides steam and electricity to the campus. It's no longer sustainable because one, it's fossil fuel based and that’s not what we want to be doing, and also it's aging. Some of it was put in in the 1800s.
ETHAN ELKIND: McGarrahan says that UC Berkeley will instead use a new thermal system to harness underground geothermal and waste heat and store the energy in water tanks that can distribute heat to campus buildings.
SALLY MCGARRAHAN: The solution is to transition Berkeley off of our aging fossil fuel based system onto a new, fully electrified, thermal system, providing hot and chilled water throughout campus. And we'll be starting construction very soon this summer.
ETHAN ELKIND: A separate program run by the UC Office of the President will then enable UC Berkeley to get direct access to renewable electricity via the grid.
SALLY MCGARRAHAN: We are part of the UCOP Clean Energy Clean Power Program, and that provides a hundred percent renewable power to the campus.
ETHAN ELKIND: But McGarrahan notes that continued funding isn’t assured.
SALLY MCGARRAHAN: So, keeping the pressure on leadership, on the state, on all of our partners to commit to this project fully and finish it is critical.
ETHAN: To learn more about UC Berkeley’s transition to clean energy, visit climatebreak.org.