Financial Sense and Climate Sensibility: Renewable Energy at Louisiana’s Universities

ALFS Meeting, Alexendria, LA Dec. 14, 2013

Professor Brian A. Salvatore (LSUS, Dept. of Chemistry and Physics)

Church, et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. (2011)

The Earth is Indeed Warming Overall, but the Biggest Changes are Happening at the Poles

Energy and our Climate

Lindsey, R., NASA Earth Observatory Study, May 2010.

Energy Consumption on our Campuses

Electricity in Louisiana is cheap! (Commercial rates are $0.05-$0.07 per kWh, among the lowest in the nation). Coal, lignite natural gas, and two nuclear-powered generators are all used here. There is relatively little renewable energy in Louisiana.

LSU-BR currently uses 225 million kWh of electricity per year.

LSUS uses 12 million KWh per year.

Our university campuses are very energy inefficient.

Campus Energy Infrastructure

LSUS December 2013

Humidity and Temperature

Over 3,000 gallons of water per yearwere removed from the air in just one room.

15 minutes after the air conditioningis turned off, temperature jumps byca 10 °F on 3rd floor of LSUS Science Bldg. (Typical daily temperature range in our Science Bldg. is 69°-95°F in the summer).

The fume hoods leak water when it rains.

Look up into the ceilings of the top floor of any of our campus buildings, and you can see daylight coming in through cracks.

Lack of Climate Control in Our Buildings(Detrimental to Chemicals and Equipment)

Campus Buildings (Temperature Stress and Structural Integrity)

LA Nat. Guard Training Facility (Camp Minden)Silver LEED Certified Building

LEED Certification Program (GBCI) (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)

Sustainability (site-selection)

Energy Efficiency

Building Materials (e.g., recycled)

Renewable Energy (wind, solar)

Indoor Environmental Quality

Design Innovations

Four levels of Certification: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum

GBCI: Green Building Certification Institute

PV Watts Viewer—A Free Service of the US DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Tucson, AZ 1837Phoenix, AZ 1786El Paso, TX 1647Los Angeles, CA 1622Denver, CO 1599Palo Alto, CA 1587Honolulu, HI 1569Miami, FL 1480Shreveport, LA 1435Lake Charles, LA 1423New Orleans, LA 1416Baton Rouge, LA 1390Monroe, LA 1377Minneapolis, MN 1354Albany, NY 1290Detroit, MI 1274Cleveland, OH 1228Seattle, WA 1100Anchorage, AK 908

Annual solar energy generated by city (KWh/year per kW rating of system)

Solar Cell Production Costs (Example from China)

Despite unprecedented cost reductions for solar hardware over recent years, ca. 50% of the total price paid to plug in residential or small commercial photovoltaic (PV) systems is related to non-hardware (i.e., interconnections, permitting, and inspection).

Enabling dramatic reductions in non-hardware costs—or "soft cost"—of solar is now the greatest challenge to achieving cost-competitive solar by 2020.

Federal (and most state) solar tax credits for residential and business customers expire at the end of 2016.

Achieving Further Cost Reductions

SunShot Prize ($10 million)Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the SunShot Prize offers a total of $10 million in cash awards to the first three teams that repeatedly demonstrate an average of $1 per watt for the “plug-in price”.(i.e. for non-hardware related costs, such as permitting, interconnection, and inspection).

Cash awards for the winners of SunShot Prize:

First place – $7 million Second place – $2 million Third place – $1 million

Highlights of Conversation with ASU’s Professor Harvey Bryan

Arizona State University has installed 23.5 MW of it’s planned 25 MW solar energy system. Ameresco and NRG are the chief developers (ASU uses PPA with its electricity vendors).

ASU is ready to install a “microgrid” on its campuses to facilitateexpansion of its solar energy systems beyond 25 MW.

The Campus Metabolism website shows the status of the ASU green energy system in real time.

ASU Solar Initiative (http://cm.asu.edu)

Solar Energy on Louisiana’s College Campuses

LSU-BR will soon announce plans to install a 1-MW of PV solar energy system on the Baton Rouge Campus. This will produce about $90,000 of electricity per year.

A 3 MW PV system on each campuses (< 8,000 students) would save $270,000 of electricity expenses per year, which could be reinvested back into academic programs.

A 10 MW PV system on campuses (> 8,000 students) would save$900,000 of electricity expenses per year which could be reinvested back into academic programs.

What would it Take to go completely “Green”?

LSU-Baton Rouge 180 MW PV system

LSU-Shreveport 9 MW PV system

Achieving just 1/3 of total campus consumption by 2025 would be superb, and it is a realistic goal!

Is this achievable with today’s technology and pricing?

Yes it is. (e.g., Palo Alto, CA is currently constructing an85 MW PV system which will produce power for $0.07 per kWh)

Different Mechanisms for Accomplishment

Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s)—vendors/developers bear all of the upfront material and installation costs, then sell the power back to the universities guaranteed rate over 20 years (after that the universities own the panels and reap the remaining benefits for the life of systems)---PV panel lifetimes currently >35 years.

Statewide Renewable Energy/Efficiency Endowment (goal: raise a $1.5 billion endowment by 2025) raise this endowment through new taxes and fees on public utilities, oil and gas refineries, and/or LNG exports. Be ready for the day (likely within a decade) when these large-scale PV solar installations cost < $1 per W.

Acknowledgements

John Selmers (Architect, KSA Alliance Inc.)

Don Bloxom (Director of Facility Services, LSU-S )

Professor Harvey Bryan (ASU Solar, Arizona State University)

Elmer Tingler (LSU-S Powerplant)

Peter Davidson (Director of Energy Services, LSU-BR)