Energy Goals and Strategies
Why Does Energy Matter?
Energy in schools is used for a variety of core operations elements such as heating and cooling, lighting, plug loads, cooking, transportation, and more. However there are two key challenges associated with energy:
1) Energy demand makes up a significant portion of a school’s ecological footprint, and has environmental, social, and economic impacts:
Environmental: Energy sourced from non-renewable resources (oil, gas, and coal) increases carbon emissions, which traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, causing human enhanced global warming and contributing to global climate change.
Social: Nonrenewable energy consumption also has a social justice impact because the most vulnerable populations often live in areas hit hardest/first by climate change, and they often live in close proximity to sources of industrial pollution putting them at higher risk for asthma, cardiovascular respiratory disease, cancer and birth defects.
Economic: Lastly, the cost of fossil fuel energy sources can be unreliable and vulnerable, putting an organization at risk when prices fluctuate unexpectedly.
2) The impacts of climate change are threatening schools’ ability to maintain safe and consistent access to energy.
The good news is that there are many things an institution can do to transition to clean energy. Furthermore, there are many things a school can do to become more energy resilient, meaning maintaining the ability to withstand and rapidly recover from power outages and continue operating with electricity, heating, cooling, ventilation, and other energy-dependent services.
Key Mandates
What are the key mandates and policies relevant to schools for Energy in California?
CA AB 32: Requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
CA EO-B-30-15 & SB 32: Mandates that California reduce its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, and to 80% by 2050.
CA Title 24 - Part 6: Requires buildings to conserve electricity, natural gas, and reduce the need for the state to build more power plants so that energy demand for existing buildings is halved by 2030. It also requires that all new commercial buildings be net zero starting in 2030 (residential is 2020).
Energy Goals and Strategies
What is a reasonable goal for an educational institution to reduce its energy footprint, and what are strategies for achieving this goal?
Goal Example: Achieve Carbon Neutrality for Energy Use by 2025-2030
Carbon neutrality, or having a net zero carbon footprint, refers to achieving net zero carbon dioxide emissions for energy use by offsetting emissions or similar eliminating carbon emissions for energy use altogether.
Energy Conservation means promoting practices and policies that encourage or mandate behavior changes that conserve energy (i.e. turning out the lights, unplugging unused appliances, etc.).
Energy Efficiency is about upgrading the existing infrastructure to be more efficient; for example: upgrading lighting (switching to LED bulbs), more efficient appliances and plug load technology, upgraded Heating Ventilation and Air Condition (HVAC) equipment, and more efficient boiler systems. All of these strategies reduce energy use without accruing the cost of a complete infrastructure remodel.
On-Site Renewables: Install renewable energy generators onsite such as solar panels or wind turbines. This option requires the space for the installation along with the ability to pay upfront or lease equipment.
Green Power Purchase: Purchasing electricity generated from a subset of renewable resources. Many communities have switched to local community choice aggregation (CCA), which typically means that 50% of already existing purchased electricity is already from renewable sources. Most CCA programs make it easy to “opt up” to purchase the remaining 50% from renewable sources as well. Typically the additional costs per kWh is around $0.01.
Carbon Offsets use a variety of mechanisms ranging from renewable energy projects to forestry projects. Although easy, it is important to vet carefully, as the offset market have been plagued with problems historically from unregulated and unverified options.
Carbon Allowances are pollution permits issued by the east coast RGGI market or California Air Resources Board market under AB32 cap-and-trade market. Each carbon allowance purchased in these markets reduce the allowances available to power plants resulting in more investment in cleaner forms of energy. The cost of one carbon allowance (one ton) fluctuated between $11 - $17 in 2016.