by David Schlissel, The Institute for Energy and Financial Analysis,
Jeffrey Loiter, Optimal Energy, Inc. and
Anna Sommer, Sommer Energy, LLC
The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis and Optimal Energy were asked to evaluate the potential for additional energy efficiency and renewable energy in Virginia, and to analyze the economic costs and benefits of a Clean Energy Investment Plan for Dominion Virginia Power (“Dominion” or “the Company”) in comparison to the “Preferred Resource Plan” and other alternatives evaluated in the Company’s 2012 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). This Report presents the results of their analyses.
Key findings of the report are:
• Dominion’s current resource mix is heavily dependent on fossil–fired generation, with coal, natural gas, and oil–fired power plants providing nearly two–thirds of the energy from Dominion–owned facilities or that the Company purchases from non–utility generators or other utilities in the PJM energy market.
• Dominion’s Preferred Resource Plan would encompass more of the same, adding more than 5,000 megawatts (MW) of new or converted natural gas– fired capacity by 2027 while failing to retire any additional coal–fired units beyond those the Company currently plans to retire by 2015. As a result, as late as 2027, with the Preferred Resource Plan, coal and natural gas–fired facilities would continue to provide nearly 60 percent of the Company’s energy mix.
• Dominion’s Preferred Resource Plan is fraught with significant uncertainties and risks for ratepayers and the environment, and it fails to account for Virginia’s substantial untapped potential for energy efficiency and renewable energy resources.
• Adoption of a Clean Energy Investment Plan, while only a first step in moving the Company towards a cleaner energy future, will provide by 2027 nearly 6,800 MW of energy efficiency and renewable resources and more than 18 million megawatt hours (MWh) of clean non–emitting energy each year, at a lower cost than building one or both of the new natural gas–fired combined cycle (NGCC) power plants that Dominion plans to add by 2019.
The Clean Energy Investment Plan considered here is a moderately aggressive plan, just a first step in addressing the future welfare of Virginians. It is not an estimate of the maximum technological potential for clean energy, but rather was developed within the restrictive regulatory structure currently in place in Virginia. The steps taken in this plan are based on technologies already known, commercialized, and expected to be economically feasible within the time frame established.
The Clean Energy Investment Plan considers a limited set of changes from Dominion’s Preferred Resource Plan that are economically competitive; i.e. that would be as economic or more so than the Preferred Resource Plan based on current conditions and conservative projections of future trends. Changes in conditions such as much higher costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions might justify a much more aggressive move toward clean energy resources.
The Report’s conclusion is that Virginia has substantial untapped potential for energy efficiency and renewable energy resources, particularly solar and offshore wind. Even a moderately aggressive Clean Energy Investment Plan would produce significant benefits for Dominion’s ratepayers. However, instead of pursuing this new direction, Dominion has chosen a Preferred Resource Plan that continues its historic dependence on large central–station fossil–fired and nuclear generating units, thereby maintaining a resource strategy that is fraught with risks and uncertainties for ratepayers.
A coalition of a number of local activist groups is on a mission.The Harrisonburg City Public School Board is in the planning phase for a new middle school to be located next to either the Harrisonburg High School or the present Thomas Harrison Middle School. It is the perfect time to consider designing a showcase net zero energy building (ZEB) which can function as a model and learning center for area students as well as offer significant energy and money savings benefiting our climate and taxpayers.
image from sustainablebusiness.com’s story on New York City’s first net zero energy school
CAAV is one of the members of the coalition, dubbed New Middle School LEED/ZEB Project. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, a program of the U.S. Green Building Council which offers nationally accepted certification for sustainable building. CAAV member Bishop Dansby says: “The City of Harrisonburg School Board is going to build a new middle school. The architect, Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates Architects, has been chosen but the design has not been developed, yet. We are on a campaign to convince the school board to make the new middle school a net zero energy structure. This will mean that via the addition of about 500kw of solar panels, the school’s net energy use over the course of the year will be zero!”
“… schools are the best opportunity to build NZEB (net zero energy buildings). They have low energy density (50% commercial), have long holidays and summer where use decreases, and the ‘owner’ has a long investment horizon (to justify the investment in solar).
You can think of NZEB as LEED plus solar. Of course, you could have NZEB without LEED, since some of the aspects of LEED have little to do with operation energy cost. However, when LEED is combined with NZEB, you have the best we humans can do for sustainability at this point in time. Further, the school becomes a learning laboratory for school children, and this is the way these schools have been used in other states.
This would be the first NZEB school in Virginia, but there are several around the country.
Frankly, the proposed new Harrisonburg middle school is large. It is actually at least as large as the Lady Bird Johnson Middle School, in terms of number of students. I found out from the meeting last night (School Board Meeting, 10/15/2013, see Architects Agenda) that the estimate of 900 students is a low estimate. This will make this NZEB project even more outstanding: it is one thing to build a small NZEB, but even more interesting to build a large NZEB. This could mean the solar array could be even larger than 500 kw.
… the School Board has the option to buy the solar array outright or to enter a power purchase agreement (PPA). Today, for a system this size, solar will cost $3.00 per watt, for a total or $1.5M for a 500w system. If we want to put pressure on the School Board, we can make the case that it would be economically irresponsible to not at least enter into a PPA, as this would reduce their power cost by 10% with no investment. By the way, we have found no evidence that LEED cost more than conventional construction, but let me know if you know different.”
Paul Hutton, AIA, LEED AP, founding Principal of Hutton Architecture Studio, in Denver, Colorado writes for the Council of Educational Facility Planners International: “One of the fastest growing trends in school design is Net Zero Energy Schools. There are now at least a dozen or more schools completed or in construction that have achieved, or have committed to, this incredible level of energy efficiency.” Bishop recommends his article Zero Energy Schools – Beyond Platinum for an “excellent primer on the subject.”
A Zero Energy Building solution shows the community that our leaders care about future costs to run a facility, tax burdens imposed on community members, and the health of our environment. More important, it shows that our community cares deeply for our children and their future. – Architect Charles Hendricks
Learn more about the benefits and cost savings of LEED-certified schools from Ashley Katz of the U.S. Green Building Council here.
“LEED-certified schools provide students, teachers and visitors with clean and healthy air to breathe, better acoustics, regular access to daylight, thermal comfort and moisture control. LEED for Schools emphasizes strategies to create spaces that enhance learning …”
By way of example, Virginia Beach City Public Schools subscribe to a sustainability plan where, “Any new or renovated building will be designed to achieve a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver rating at a minimum.”
City Council meeting, March 28, 2013 photo from Becky Johnston
Earlier this year, the Harrisonburg City Public School Board’s request to the Harrisonburg City Council for the new school drew a packed audience interested in seeing that bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure be included in its planning and funding. See the Northend Greenway’s post about this here.
To further the coalition’s efforts to promote a net zero energy (and bike/ped accessible) Harrisonburg Middle School:
Journalist Emily Sharrer covered this project for the Daily News-Record on November 11, 2013, here.
Bishop Dansby’s Open Forum piece in the Daily News-Record on November 23, 2013, here: New School Should be Green.
New Middle School LEED/ZEB Project co-leaders Bishop Dansby and Jeffrey Tang offered comments about the new middle school design at the Harrisonburg City School Board meeting on Tuesday, November 5. Click on either image below for video of the meeting. School discussion begins at 44 minutes.
Click on this image to sign the coalition’s online petition!
Last week Bishop and I went to a meeting at the School Board’s offices that we were told was with the architects. It turned out to be a meeting with the architects, the engineers, both mechanical and physical, school reps and a person from Chicago helping to organize the design process. They were very interested in the concepts and made clear that the limiting factor is how the City Council makes the money available. If, as in the past, the City Council provides a lump sum and says “build the best school you can with this money” then the money is hard to allocate to future energy savings beyond what the Building Code requires.
They repeatedly said that LEED certification at one level is almost a given because of Building Code requirements. That does not necessarily translate into energy efficiency or production because LEED points can be obtained in a number of different ways.
The real work is on City Council and the budget process. The issue is that savings from future budgets regarding lower utility payments are a totally different budget than capital improvements budget for putting up the building. We need the City to add the current value of the future savings into the dollars made available for the building. Then the School Board can spend money on energy efficiency.
I do not know when will be the best time to have a bunch of people attend a City Council meeting, but we need to figure that out and plan it. I am assuming it will be after a site is chosen in January but am really not sure.
Also, I have added Scott Kettelkamp to this list. He is local contractor who has built three passive solar townhomes in Harrisonburg that also have active solar panels. They include things like shades on light sensors that automatically open and lower, etc. He has data on how they have performed through the seasons that is Harrisonburg specific and his wife teaches elementary school in the City Schools and they have children in the school system. We need people like him to attend whatever meeting we will have in front of City Council to present their experience and what they want.
Congratulations to Charlotte whose name was drawn from the pot of 27 names to win the tree!
Thanks to Anne Nielsen for compiling these eight reasons to love trees:
8 Reasons to Plant a Tree
If you have ever been walking in the sun on a hot city street and then come into the cool shade of a big tree, then you probably intuitively know some of the benefits that trees offer. The following 8 reasons to plant a tree were gratefully adopted from The Urban Tree Book, by Art Plotnik.
1. Trees produce oxygen. A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year.
2. Trees help to clean the air. Trees help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat, and absorbing air pollutants including carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Trees reduce and remove air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration, and by retaining particulates. Evergreen conifers, such as pine trees, produce slightly higher levels of nitrogen dioxide and therefore broadleaf trees, such oaks and maples, are recommended for maximum air quality benefit.
3. Trees become “carbon sinks”:To produce its food, a tree absorbs and locks away carbon dioxide, a global warming gas. An urban forest is a carbon storage area that can lock up as much carbon as it absorbs, until the leaves (or the trees) fall and rot.
4. Trees shade and cool: Shade from trees reduces the need for air conditioning in summer. In winter, trees break the force of winter winds, lowering heating costs. Studies have shown that parts of cities without cooling shade from trees can literally be “heat islands,” with temperatures as much as 12 degrees Fahrenheit higher than surrounding areas.
5. Trees act as windbreaks: During windy and cold seasons, trees act as windbreaks. A windbreak can lower home heating bills up to 30%. A reduction in wind can also reduce the drying effect on other vegetation behind the windbreak.
6. Trees fight soil erosion: Trees fight soil erosion, conserve rainwater, and reduce water runoff and sediment deposit after storms.
7. Trees make effective sound barriers: Trees muffle urban noise almost as effectively as stone walls. Trees, planted at strategic points in a neighborhood or around your house, can abate major noises from freeways and airports.
8. Trees increase property values: Real estate values increase when trees beautify a property or neighborhood. Trees can increase the property value of your home by 15% or more. Planting a tree leaves a legacy that you and your children can visit as the years go by, reminiscing about how you used to be the same height, marveling as the tree grows, and basking in the coolness and shade on a hot summer day.
Thanks to Patti Nylander, Senior Area Forester, Virginia Department of Forestry, for our handouts “to help people take better care of their urban trees,” including 24 Ways to Kill a Tree.
More photos from the CAAV PARKlet PROJECT in this Picasa web album:
This letter was available for signing at the CAAV booth at the International Festival in Harrisonburg on September 28, 2013.
Dear Senators Warner and Kaine:
We at Climate Alliance of the Valley have watched your recent YouTube video titled – Bill to Expand Offshore Energy Leases- and are responding to your invitation for citizen input. Although this would not take effect until 2020, we feel it is misdirected in light of the science explaining the chemistry and physics of climate disruption.
This plan may have been justified when the former Senators Warner and Webb first introduced this but we are better informed now. We know now that to help protect future Virginians it is imperative that we leave all fossil fuels deep in the earth and not put them in the atmosphere to cause excessive heating of our beautiful blue-green ball, with the only known existence of life as we know it.
If you have read the science, and we feel both of you at least understand what is happening, there is no other choice than trying to get off of our fossil fuel addiction. You have both sponsored and supported some very important energy legislation. It is really difficult for the alcoholic not to take that next drink. It is time now to take the next step. Put a Price on Carbon.
It is easy to understand where you are coming from politically in this video and we would like to see you re-elected unless someone else is more willing to step up and support legislation to preserve life as we know it.
If you have read the science and know the facts, how can you do other than step forward and put some kind of price on carbon. What will your children or grandchildren say in 20-30 yrs if you don’t do what you can now?
We are supporting some form of Fee and Dividend (S-332, Saunders-Boxer Bill or several house bills etc). Citizens Climate Lobby has done a lot of work on this. We feel it is the only kind of bill that has a chance of passing and will do the job of reducing our carbon usage. We know all the arguments against this pushed by the fossil fuel industry and we know what is going to happen if we don’t soon get started. Therefore, we are asking you both to become leaders in trying to stop us from destroying ourselves.
CAAV invited Harrisonburg International Festival 2013 attendees to contribute stickers to our board listing things we do to reduce our carbon footprint. This September 28 event held at Hillandale Park attracted over 8000 people to enjoy an afternoon of music, dance, food, crafts and non-profit displays in celebration of “our community’s rich intercultural diversity.”
In addition to placing stickers on the carbon footprint board, we also invited signatures on a letter to Senators Kaine and Warner asking for their support of legislation to curtail carbon emissions.
Clean Energy Investment Plan for Dominion Virginia Power
