We have a project where onsite solar panels generate a portion of the electricity serving the building - but not all. It's registered under ID&C, and I'm not sure how to complete the credit submittal template.
Should I simply input it in the spreadsheet, and list under the "purchase type" - "Owned"? And then, we can purchase the balance of the power through RECs? Or does this portion of solar energy fall exclusively under SSc1?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5868 thumbs up
January 8, 2014 - 1:31 pm
On-site renewables are not directly covered by this credit. They are clearly included in SSc1.
With that said they are related to this credit. Any on-site renewable production would be subtracted from the consumption when determining how much green power must be purchased for this credit. Who owns the PV system? How is the electricity in the building billed? How much of the building is occupied by this tenant? Has the PV power been allocated within another LEED submission like CS? Make sure you clearly explain how you are determining how much of the PV power is allocated to your CI project as this will raise questions (as you can see above).
Stacey Olson
SW Regional Design Resilience LeaderGensler
15 thumbs up
January 8, 2014 - 2:46 pm
Thank you - upon doing more research, it seems a little more complicated than I expected.
The existing building was sold, and had been EBOM certified 10.3.13. Under Ebom, the original owner pursued credit EAc4 - Onsite & Offsite renewable energy. It's now owner/landlord occupied.
Under EAc4 - Onsite, they claimed 47.84 MBTUs of energy generated from solar. The original owner then purchased RECs for the remainder of the estimated power consumption, with a 2 year contract. The contract, therefore, runs form 10/13 - 10/15.
The new owner - my client - decided to do a major renovation, and wants to re-certify under CI. They hope to be certified by June/14. I can offset the amount of RECs we purchase based on their exisitng solar contributions, but now my 2nd question is: do those existing RECs purchased under EBOM - that run for another year - count for anything? Or since the building changed hands, should we discount it? Thanks.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5868 thumbs up
January 8, 2014 - 3:53 pm
Let me give you an example - I think that if you did a BD+C project and purchased RECs that those same RECs could be used in your EBOM submission. If so I think that the same logic would apply when going the other direction. My opinion would be that the EBOM RECs should contribute toward your CI RECs. You may need to be able to demonstrate that the current building owner owns the RECs in order to claim them.