Solar Power and Resilient Design for Schools and Shelters

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing about a “solar secure” recreation center in Brooklyn and a “high performance” school in Kentucky that are benefiting their communities as well as those who use the buildings. This briefing showed how sustainable public buildings can collectively reduce emissions and clear the air, especially in disadvantaged communities where energy utilities are often sited. Case studies featured buildings—both in urban and in rural areas—that are improving public health and driving economic growth, while protecting and serving their communities and neighborhoods even during emergencies.

This briefing featured a retrofit project in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City and a net-zero energy high school in rural Kentucky, as well as projects incorporating sustainability principles in Prince George's County, Maryland. After being devastated by Hurricane Sandy and left without power for days, the historic Red Hook Recreation Center was transformed into a community space and safe refuge with the installation of a solar power and battery system. For vocational students near Lexington, Kentucky, the Locust Trace AgriScience Center embodies the principles of sustainability. With daylit classrooms and low-impact land development, the buildings and campus provide hands-on learning of new skills for today’s jobs with minimal energy/water use and low carbon emissions. The Redevelopment Authority (RDA) of Prince George's County, MD, is developing mixed-income/mixed-use projects and affordable housing in urban communities near transit centers using sustainability principles that promote walkability, green design, and energy and water efficiency.

Moderator — Ellen Vaughan, Policy Director, Sustainable Buildings, EESI

• This briefing will show how sustainable buildings—featuring energy efficiency and renewable energy—can make entire communities more resilient.
• Sustainable buildings can also help address other policy goals, including safe and healthy communities, equitable economic development, environmental stewardship, and environmental justice.
• Buildings account for 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption and over 70 percent of electricity use. Buildings that are energy efficient and use renewable energy can help states reduce emissions and comply with the Clean Power Plan.

Matt de la Houssaye, Director, NY Office & Coalition for Resource Recovery, Global Green USA

• Solar panels located in community centers can provide basic functionality to entire communities after a power outage. Residents can recharge and use cellphones, lights, laptops, small refrigeration systems (which can be necessary for critical medical supplies), and other essential electrical devices.
• The sun is always there and free: even if the power grid goes down, the local community center can still run basic emergency response operations and coordinate with the larger disaster response system.
• During emergencies, batteries can store excess power generated by grid-connected solar panels. Otherwise, such panels might need to be disconnected since their excess power would be routed to the grid where it might electrocute crews repairing the power lines.
• Global Green USA installed solar panels and an AC to DC inverter in the Rockaway Beach Surf Club (Far Rockaway, NY), which proved invaluable in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, even without a battery system. An inverter is well-suited to small community centers: it is small in size and cost ($3,000 retail) and easy to install, yet it provides up to 1.5 kW of electricity, allowing residents to recharge their phones. A policy question is whether federal disaster assistance would enable communities to invest in technologies like this to help them weather future emergencies.
• For the Red Hook Recreation Center (Brooklyn, NY), Global Green USA installed solar panels and batteries to create a micro-grid, which can isolate itself when the main power goes out. A 'Resilient Room' features heating, cooling, electrical outlets, a television, and a fridge, all potentially powered by solar panels and a battery backup.
• Community centers can also contribute to solar energy/technology education, by introducing children (and other residents) to solar power and its attributes, including greater resilience for our communities.
• Challenges include how to create isolated loads that can function independently of the main electrical load, and how to place batteries in existing housing.

Susan Stokes Hill, Principal, Tate Hill Jacobs Architects, Inc

• Kentucky, and the Fayette County Public Schools district in particular, is committed to funding net-zero energy public schools. [UPDATE: Fayette County Public Schools was awarded the U.S. Green Building Council's 'Best of Green Schools' award in the School System category on March 31, 2016. According to USGBC, "The Fayette County Public Schools have embraced the three-pillar model of sustainability to holistically address environmental literacy, building performance and student wellness, and leverages their students’ passion and leadership in all three areas."]
• The Locust Trace AgriScience Center near Lexington, Kentucky, had been envisioned as a model for green, sustainable practices from the get-go. It is part of the Fayette County Public Schools district.
• An integrated design team was critical to meeting the sustainability goals. Included at the table were the owner, end users (teachers and students), community partners, architects, engineers, contractors, building operations and maintenance personnel.
• Several sustainable design standards and guidelines were used, including ASHRAE's and EPA's EnergyStar.
• The key project goals were: the buildings would serve as teaching tools, would suit their location, would have minimal footprints, and would achieve net-zero energy, water, and waste.
• Reducing energy consumption was key, and traditional design techniques were used, such as taking into account building orientation to minimize the need for heating and cooling.
• The buildings also feature insulating concrete form (ICF) construction, solar panels, geothermal water source heat pumps, customized temperature zoning and demand-control ventilation, and tubular daylighting systems and controls.
• A "cultural change" was also sought, to make sure the building's users internalized energy-saving behaviors.
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