We would like achieve points for the credit: Renewable Energy Production. The design team is considering an Aquifer Therma Energy Storage (ATES) in combination with a heatpump.
Does this combination of system forfils the requirements of the credit Renewable Energy Production:
"Geothermal energy, such as electricity generated from subterranean steam or heat generated from subterranean steam or hot water, is eligible. However, geothermal energy used in conjunction with vapor compression cycles, as in a ground-source heat pump, is not"?
Thank you,
Ydo
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5868 thumbs up
February 4, 2017 - 4:56 pm
You have a heat pump moving the heat back and forth so it is not eligible.
David Eldridge
Energy Efficiency NinjaGrumman/Butkus Associates
67 thumbs up
March 17, 2017 - 6:18 pm
The inclusion of the heat pump makes it seem unlikely. A ground source heat pump would not be considered renewable energy by LEED.
If you were continually drawing heat energy or cooling energy from the aquifer then that portion of the energy may have an argument - the explicit language is only for drawing hot water, but drawing cooling could also be seen as a parallel activity - but the energy to run the compressor is treated as conventional and would seem to disqualify the project, unless you can elaborate on the configuration you are proposing.
Seasonal operation would seem to make the answer "no" unfortunately.