How do projects on combustion-fueled district energy systems approach this prereq & credit?
Many campus projects with a central plant are now being designed to use no fossil fuel on site, but use heating and service hot water heating from a fossil fuel campus source. It makes more financial and energy sense to connect to a campus system than to add heating systems to a new or renovated building, but it does mean that full electrification can't be achieved on day one. I would love to see a path to earn some points under the credit for projects in this scenario where the campus has a decarbonization plan for the central plant and no new sources of combustion are added by the individual project. And for district energy projects to be exempted from generating decarbonization plans beyond their project boundary for the prereq, as that work is outside the project scope.
Mark Terpstra
6 thumbs up
May 9, 2024 - 6:14 pm
I think a district system would have to supply their plan for this credit. It does bring up the question on decarbonization vs electrification. Should a district system by allowed to install CCS technology? What about blue/green hydrogen?
Emily Purcell
Sustainable Design LeadCannonDesign
LEEDuser Expert
371 thumbs up
May 10, 2024 - 1:11 pm
great questions, and I'm also wondering how detailed a district plan would need to be (dates, costs, funding sources...) to be approved for credit. Definitely don't want to award vague pledges to decarbonize by 2050, but want some flexibility for plans that are in developent or not yet funded.
Riley McKillop
PrincipalAutocase
May 17, 2024 - 11:08 am
Completely agree with the above comments. I think it also would be great if this credit language followed guidance from the GHG Protocol, given that it is already a well established reporting framework in the industry and may provide an impetus for building owners to pursue this credit if they are already following GHG Protocol reporting standards.