We have a solar farm on our site that generates about 1.7 million kWh of electricity per year. The array is 100% grid tied selling all energy back to the public utility. We are exploring the idea of taking this array off the grid and using the energy to help power a new office building planned for completion in 2019. To do this will require a considerable capital investment.
In 2011, we used energy from this solar array for a single LEED credit with another building. Does this disqualify us from using the array for our current new construction office building?
The previous project was LEED-NC 2.2 building, certified gold in Dec-2011. This building earned 1 point for EAc2 On-site renewable energy. In Jan-2015, this building was recertified EB:OM v2009, gold level. The solar array is 100% grid tied and the EBOM project was not eligible to use any of the energy production for LEED credits.
Using the solar array energy in the new building could be worth up to 12 points from EAc1 and EAc4 putting us on the path platinum certification. The new construction project won’t be opened until late 1st quarter 2019, almost 8 years from the previous project utilizing the solar array for the LEED credit. Our hope is the change in intent/scope and additional investment required to actually use the energy in the building will qualify it for this new project.
You rely on LEEDuser. Can we rely on you?
LEEDuser is supported by our premium members, not by advertisers.
Go premium for
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5868 thumbs up
June 24, 2016 - 10:36 am
There should be a connection to the buildings somehow (solar array feeds campus grid or similar). So not sure you need to take it off grid but I there is not enough information above to say for sure. If the array produces far more than has been allocated to previous LEED projects, you can then simply allocated some of the additional output to another LEED project. Subtract the allocation to the first project from the annual production and that is how much you could allocate to another project.
Zane Lichtneger
Sustainability AnalystSAS Institute Inc.
5 thumbs up
June 24, 2016 - 11:51 am
Thanks Marcus. Here is some more information.
For the 1st project (2011) 100% of the solar energy was contributed to the building to offset energy cost for LEED-NC 2.2 certification. We only earned one point for the credit EAc2 and it was not even necessary for our certification level. There was no connection from the solar array to the building.
We now want to take the solar array off grid and connect it directly to our new project building and use 100% of the energy to offset energy and cost. By doing this we could potentially earn 12 points for credits EAc1 and EAc4. The solar array will be connected only to the new project building using 100% of the energy with no connection to the grid.
We are basically trying to determine if we used the solar energy for a past project will we ever be able to use it for a future project? I hope this clarifies our situation.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5868 thumbs up
June 24, 2016 - 12:11 pm
No. If you already allocated 100% of the power to a previous project you can't allocate it again to another project.