Procuring Off-Site Renewable Energy

It does not look like PAE is represented in this group (they should be), but for their Portland Living Building office I know they figured out a way to own a PV array installed on an affordable housing project, where the housing tenants get the cost benefit of the free power, and they get the renewable energy "credit" for ILFI. This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but I really like the energy/equity synergy of this approach. Mike Manzi RA, CSI, CDT, LEED BD+C Associate Principal he/him Bora Architecture & Interiors Working from home, please use email

Hi Kjell, I'd love to hear more about what you find out. We are working on an Zero Cabon project for a large DC institutional client and they have a policy to buy RECs for all of their properties. I'd love to give them names of other sources as well. Thanks so much!  

Mike’s description of the PAE Living Building strategy is spot on (ILFI allowed us to sell or donate the energy, but we needed to retain the RECs), as well as his assertion that PAE should be involved with this group. I’ve made the case to them a couple times, but obviously I’m not persuasive enough – if others interact with them as well, you might mention it. ILFI has some requirements outlines, of course, but there are always unique project needs and exceptions. In addition to the LBC scale jumping, we have a number of other projects that are using utility-scale off-site sourced renewables. SMUD SolarShares (availability might be maxed out commercially now, or at least was) is a good example of a utility-managed program, and we have another major project/client developing their own array. Chris Flint Chatto AIA, LEED AP BD+C Principal ZGF ARCHITECTS LLP T 503.863.2324 E chris.chatto@zgf.com 1223 SW Washington Street, Suite 200 Portland, OR 97205 From: M

I have also reached out to PAE a couple of times, to a variety of different people there.  They may believe that their 11 herbs and spices are a significant competitive advantage to them.

In case contact information for specific people is useful, historically I've gone to Scott Maloney (smaloney@carbonsolutionsgroup.com) and Lauren Newsom (lnewsom@renewablechoice.com) for all of my energy brokering needs. They're both Mid-Atlantic based, but they'll point you to the respective reps for your geography. I also did an effort with Schneider Electric and our contact there was Sully Lineberger (sully.lineberger@se.com).

Kjell, Great question. I agree that individual buildings are too small for VPPA type deals. I talked to someone at REBA (Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance) recently, and they have some interesting resources that speak to this, but mostly just validating the challenge for individual buildings. My first step for offsite RE is to look for the availability of local community solar gardens, which exist in some places. That's usually the highest value proposition, but they often don't let you keep RECs (as is the case in NY and CO). I think that will change though. I've asked USGBC about this in the LEED Zero context and they advise to purchase open market RECs for those CSG MWhs, which doesn't make any sense. After CSGs, I look for Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), which is relevant for California, but I don't know where else. Absent those, you have to go to utility green tarrifs, of which there are a variety. Some just let you pay more for old renewables, which should be avoided. Others let you buy in to new, additional developments, which are better. Beyond that, if nothing exists, then you are kind of stuck and need to be purchase RECs. If there are other mechanisms out there, I'd love to learn about them. Josh 

Does anyone have good contacts at either 3Degrees or 3 Phases Renewables? Both are Certified B-Corps and I'd like to use them if possible... but can't really get a response from the 'contact us' generic inquiry on either of their websites. (Or my junk mail filter is blocking them). Help? 

We've worked with Brian Harvey at 3Degrees. bharvey@3degrees.com or 415.659.8865.  Back in February they informed us that they are no longer supporting the purchase of REC's for LEED projects so FYI.  We've had a hard time getting connected with 3 Phases Renewables as well so I don't have a good contact there. We also work with Carbon Solutions Group, Scott Maloney recently left the organization but you can contact Matthew Hay at mhay@carbonsoutionsgroup.com or 619.798.6862.  Best of luck!

Meredith, any insight as to why they would no longer support RECs for LEED projects?

Conor, no I did not recieve a detailed explaination. My guess is the LEED contracts weren't worth the $$ compared to some other markets. Also, we've seen a substantial cost increase in the last 12-24 months in REC's across multiple vendors so it's become a more costly option and therefore less likely to be pursued.  Here's the notification that we recieved from Feb. 2021 - "...3Degrees will no longer be operating in the LEED space moving forward.....Starting March 1st, we will no longer transact new LEED business." 

Hey everyone, I missed this thread first time around - sorry.   I cringe a bit on this one as I wrote those requirements when at ILFI.  As it turns out, it's pretty hard in some locations.  If you are in a deregulated energy market, it is easy, as you can just find a utility provider that meets ILFI's requirements.  Increasingly, utilities are also providing a renewable purchase option that truly is renewable; however you might have a hard time purchasing it with a long term contract.  Other utilities, like Puget Sound Energy, offer the Green Direct program which would allow you to do a renewable PPA directly with them.   Surprisingly, in WA State buying these offsite renewables is tough.  In the case of Catalyst, McKinstry's ZE/ZC building in Spokane, we were able to do our offsite renewables on other McKinstry buildings (in conjunction with contracts that essentially apply the renewable attribution to Catalyst).  This enables us to capture the power benefit and make it a reasonable value proposition.  However, if you didn't have that, you'd be buying renewables for someone else.   I've spend a ton of time on this issue and happy to help folks with specific issues.   One of my top three Biden wave the wand policy changes would be to require all utilities to provide a 100% renewable purchase option.  

BTW buying plain market RECs does not meet ILFI's requirements.

And sorry for multi posts - To Josh's point, when at ILFI I tried to find/get someone to provide a building scale VPPA that provided bundled RECs with additionality and couldn't get any takers. If there was a consortium however you might get someone to bite.