Hello,
I'm working on a garment factory which energy use is 95% process, steam more specifically. This steam is produced at 40% by a biomass boiler, fueled with agricultural waste. The rest is produced by a diesel boiler.
I know that LEED v4 NC does not allow to offset the cost of renewables, which I understand as meaning that the cost of renewables has to be counted in the energy cost for the proposed design. But what about the baseline? Am I supposed to consider that the process energy in the baseline is also partly renewable? Or should I consider that the baseline uses exclusively the "backup energy" i.e. diesel in this case (as in LEED 2009)?
This matter a great deal for this project because renewable steam is much cheaper than diesel steam. And this is how we expect to meet the required 5% energy cost reduction.
Thanks for your input!
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5921 thumbs up
April 10, 2018 - 11:41 am
Are you working with Melissa Merryweather? I just answered a very similar question in another post. Here is what I told her.
Under v4 you have to meet the prerequisite without renewables so you will need to do something. Boiler efficiency and waste heat recovery come to mind first when you are talking steam. I have never seen a facility that simply cannot be more energy efficient than standard practice but I obviously don't know much about this one.
You are not allowed to compare different fuels to demonstrate a cost savings. Assuming it qualifies it could count as a renewable and needs to be documented that way. This should help to score many points as long as you can figure out how to meet the prerequisite. If the remaining use is also mostly process then this can certainly be difficult and would force you to find savings in the process.
You might also want to look at this pilot credit using different metrics - https://www.usgbc.org/credits/eapc95v4
Patrick Bivona
ConsultantSelf-employed
April 10, 2018 - 1:01 pm
Hi Marcus, thanks for your answer. Yes I work with Melissa.
I must say I'm still unclear on how to NOT count renewable energy in the context of our project. Our renewable fuel does have a cost, it just happens to be cheaper than the non-renewable alternative. What fuel cost are we supposed to consider for this steam, if not the one used by the actual building? It would seem very strange to have to consider that our steam is fully produced with diesel, when it's not.
The language in the reference guide states that we cannot offset the renewable energy to meet the prerequisite. We are not proposing to do this, but rather count the actual cost for the fuel, which will be different in proposed and baseline, as per the PRM section G2.4.
Thanks!
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5921 thumbs up
April 10, 2018 - 2:28 pm
You are supposed to use the fuel cost of the actual building or some sort of published average rate. G2.4 indicates you need to use the same rates in the baseline as the proposed. So if you have a cheaper fuel used in your project you need to use the same fuel in the baseline. The exceptions refer to renewable sources without a charge associated with them, so in your case this does not apply.
It is correct you can't use the renewables to meet the prerequisite so you will need to find 5% in the building/process. You would then be able to count the renewables portion of the fuel use as a renewable. This gets a bit cleaner if you use one of the alternative metrics I mentioned in the pilot since it takes cost out of the equation.
Scott Bowman
LEED FellowIntegrated Design + Energy Advisors, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
520 thumbs up
April 11, 2018 - 3:52 pm
Just a comment on why I feel this is the right way LEED should address energy savings. We are concerned about reducing all energy use, not just shifting to renewables. Renewables still have an impact on the environment. Manufacturing of wind turbines and PV and the repair, upgrade, replacement, and disposal all have an impact. Requiring to meet reduced energy use AND rewarding renewable use is the best way to lead the market. That being said, I do wish there was more reward for the renewable...just saying!