Our project has a photovoltaic array that generates electricity which it´s sent totally to the grid, not being consumed directly in the building. This electricity it’s not sold to a specific user, it´s purchased directly by the utility provider.
In this case, can this renewable energy production count for this credit? And/or can it count for Optimize Energy Performance credit? At the end, this sold energy should be understood as a discount for the total amount of energy purchased in the project.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5916 thumbs up
January 25, 2018 - 11:19 am
If the power is not used or in anyway sold to the project then the project can't claim it.
I am a bit confused by the last sentence which seems to imply that the project's electric usage will be reduced by the PV production? How does that work if the power is fed directly to the grid and is purchased by the utility? Maybe some more detail on the situation would help my understanding.
Borja Sánchez
ArchitectÁRBOL Aquitectura Sostenible
January 25, 2018 - 12:05 pm
Thank you for your quick response, Marcus. What I wanted to mean it´s that if LEED compares Baseline consumption with Proposed by cost ($), not directly on energy consumption (KWh), and if the project sells the generated photovoltaic energy to the same utility that provides it, we can asume the cost of the energy as the subtraction between cost of energy bought and energy sold. For example:
Energy purchased from the utility: $100,000
Energy sold to the utility: $10,000
Final cost for the energy: $90,000
I understand this situation as a net balance energy consumption.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5916 thumbs up
January 25, 2018 - 12:38 pm
Is the owner of the project and the owner of the PV array the same entity? If so what you propose may work.
The owner must retain or replace any SRECs associated with the PV production.