Newsletter 2018 | Quarter 1

The Oklahoma Association of Energy Engineers

CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE!

Welcome from the President: Energy Efficiency is Like Building a Power Plant

What business tries to get customers to use their product more resourcefully?  None, except the electric utility.  Continued electric utility investment in energy efficiency resources has surfaced as a real tool for resource planning and maybe even climate change.

Think about the easy bake oven. When I was young it was one of my favorite toys … I could bake a little cake or some brownies wow what fun.  The oven made baked goods with the heat generated by two 100-watt incandescent light bulbs.  The Edison light bulb with tungsten filament burns bright, but 90% of the energy

goes to making heat not light…not very efficient, but good for baking.

A blog post by ACEEE (December 1, 2017) New data, same results – Saving energy is still cheaper than making energy shows the two paths the electric utility could follow: build power plants to covert fossil fuel to power or energy efficiency.  ACEEE estimates that energy efficiency is the 3rd largest electricity resource!

Energy efficiency is lowest cost resource compared to wind, solar, coal, and natural gas combined cycle. Energy efficiency has other benefits like improved comfort, better safety, process control for industry, and creates local jobs for our communities.

So when you think about doing a lighting retrofit or a building controls project it is like building a mini power plant.

Thank you AEEOK for giving me the opportunity to serve these past two years. I am leaving you in very capable hands of Jitendra Gautam our new president for 2018.  I encourage our membership to continue to pursue their passion in this wonderful industry.

Thanks!Kerry R Rowland, CEM

2

Jitendra Gautam

Kerry Rowland

Lyle Stogner

Tom Korpal

Burl Ray Chambers

President

Past President

Secretary

Vice President

Treasurer

Our Board Members

3

Register Now

The joint AEEOK & OREC conference will present trends and innovations in renewables and energy and beneficial electrification. Join us as we discuss latest innovations in the energy industry.  

BREAKOUT SESSIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION:

• Status update on renewable energy in Oklahoma

• On-road and off-road EV the economic and environmental impact

• Smart Building Technologies• The integration of DER on the grid

TICKETS$40.00 Attendance ticket $20.00 Student $35.00 Government/NonProfit $200.00 Booth Sponsorship$250.00 Morning Sponsor$250.00 Lunch Sponsor$1,000.00 Presenting Sponsor$500.00 Co-Presenting Sponsor

4

Your Company Can Become A Presenting Sponsor

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

On the path to net zero energy, here is how to find opportunities for energy efficiency, and turn them into capital to reinvest.Operating a net zero energy building essentially means that the building produces as much energy as it uses on an annual basis. The obvious challenge with net zero energy is that you have to produce enough energy to achieve net zero, and solar panels, fuel cells, wind turbines, etc., require significant capital to procure.

The rotten truth about a net zero energy goal is that you can buy your way to it. Simply find a big bag of money and use it to buy solar panels to cover every square inch of your building. By adding a massive amount of power, even the most inefficient buildings can achieve net zero.

And who has extra money lying around to pay for renewable energy systems? The answer: everyone.  

Just about every building wastes energy in some form or another. And wasted energy represents the capital needed to get to net zero energy. Every watt of energy saved through controls, occupant behavior changes, and upgrades is one less watt that needs to be generated on-site. So you can accrue capital you need to procure renewable energy systems by saving energy first, and by doing so you will avoid additional costs of buying a larger renewable energy systems that cover your waste.

To start the journey to net zero energy, the first step is to eliminate energy waste. The savings you accrue over time can be reinvested in your building to achieve the next wave of energy efficiency. And when you have eliminated all the waste, then your building is truly ready for net zero.

3 STEPSTo Net Zero Energy Operations

5

BY BRAD PEASE

The Brando Resort achieved near net zero energy by designing systems that consume no more energy or water than they produce or that can be locally harvested. Paladino and Co.

6

Here are the steps that you can take today, without that magic bag of money:

1. FIND AND FIX YOUR WASTED ENERGY

• Conduct an ASHRAE Level II or III audit. This will provide you with energy conservation measures that span from no-/low-cost and that have an immediate payback, to more substantial upgrades that may take multiple years to return the investment.

• Implement low- and no-cost measures right now. Every building can tolerate adjustments to HVAC, lighting, and ventilation schedules so they run only when needed. Changes in setpoints, time of use, occupant preferences, and other simple optimization measures often pay for the audit in the first or second year of the change.

• Consider how occupants are part of the equation. Are you keeping the building cooler/warmer due to a few complaints? Are occupants plugging in equipment they don’t really need? Do occupants understand how their behavior is driving building energy use? Don’t be afraid to ask these questions to uncover the lowest cost options to save energy.

• Doggedly take advantage of every single opportunity to reduce — and eventually eliminate — wasted energy. Roadblocks to implementation change year-to-year; don’t hesitate to reconsider an idea that did not pan out the year before to see if barriers have been removed. Perceptions are rapidly changing; be prepared to take advantage of those shifts.

2. USE THE SAVINGS TO PAY FOR IMPROVEMENTS

• In the coming years, keep your budget for utilities consistent from year 1, but escalate it annually to keep up with the rising cost of energy. That way, when you realize savings from these incremental efficiencies, those savings become your budget to reinvest in the building year-on-year.

• If you run out of efficiency options, there are clues to know if you have truly identified all of the possible wasted energy in your building. Simply look up your building type within the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) administered by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). If you are saving at least 50 percent more energy than the average building in your survey, chances are that it’s time to invest in renewables instead of looking for further upgrades.

• Calculate the total cost per kWh for solar panels. This will be the baseline against which to compare every energy efficiency

PNC Financial Services Group established its first net zero energy branch in Fort Lauderdale. Credit: Paladino and Co.

7

Read MoreClick here to

measure you identify. Any energy conservation measure that has a lower cost per kWh saved should be implemented before investing in solar panels.

• Each time you incur enough budget to implement the next energy efficiency measure, recalculate your budget on the cost per watt of renewable energy. The market is rapidly evolving, and the costs for renewable energy are constantly going down.

3. WHEN YOU REACH THE SWEET SPOT WHERE THE COST OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IS LESS THAN THE COST OF THE NEXT BUILDING UPGRADE (SEE “ECM SELECTION ROADMAP” BELOW), THEN AND ONLY

THEN, IS THE RIGHT TIME TO INVEST IN POWER PRODUCTION THROUGH ON-SITE RENEWABLES 

• Once you begin to invest in renewables, keep your eye on your efficiency gains and your property’s performance. Before investing in the next phase or renewables, be sure that waste has not crept back into the building.

• It takes focus and ruthless implementation to achieve a net zero property; use your journey to track best practices. The more focus you bring to operational excellence, the quicker you will achieve your net zero goal.

• Share your lessons learned and engage in industry groups. Technologies, best practices, occupant behavior trends, and government incentives are always evolving. By staying current, you can identify alternate paths which may get you to your net zero destination quicker.

For some owners, the net zero energy goal could be achieved in five to 10 years. For others, the path may take longer. Regardless of the time frame, these steps will work on any building and for any owner or operations team that is 100 percent committed to a net zero energy goal. 

Solar power expanding in OklahomaEastern part of state lags behindBY MIKE COPPOCK, TULSA WORLD | NOVEMBER 2017

COVINGTON — With the shadows of towering wind generators nearby, workers are setting up more than 38,000 photovoltaic panels that will cover 80 acres on the north edge of this small Garfield County farming community.

The solar farm will be the second for Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. The 10-megawatt solar power plant being built by California-based SunPower Corp. will generate electricity for 1,000 homes in Oklahoma. The plant’s cost is forecast to be around $20 million.

OG&E built its first solar farm with 2.5-megawatts in 2015 at its Mustang power plant on the western edge of Oklahoma City.

“Solar is a new thing coming out,” says Kathleen O’Shea, manager of corporate communications for OG&E. “This second solar farm is just recognition that solar technology is a viable energy source.”

The Covington plant will use the Oasis system, which has 50 percent fewer parts than conventional solar plant systems, an integrated solar tracker design and SunPower’s P-series solar panels, designed to produce more energy than conventional panels through the lifetime of the system.

“The beauty with solar is the output goes directly into our grid system and can be used by anyone who is our customer,” O’Shea said.

The Covington plant qualifies for Oklahoma’s zero-emissions tax credit, a program that ended for wind energy July 1. The incentive offers a 0.5 cents per kilowatt hour tax credit that can be carried forward for 10 years. The credit is refundable for 85 percent of its value.

OG&E has a waiting list for its community Solar Power program, where residential customers can sign up for special rates at different times of the day.

Covington represents a quiet, under-the-radar revolution in the Oklahoma energy industry. The state ranks sixth in the nation for solar power potential with over 3,000 sunlight hours a year. Last year Oklahoma saw 2.9 megawatts of solar capacity set up. Solar jobs in Oklahoma City skyrocketed by 106 percent in 2016 over the previous year.

8

Workers install photovoltaic panels at a 10-megawatt solar plant being built for

Oklahoma Gas & Electric in Covington. SunPower

Corp./Courtesy

Red River Valley Rural Electric Association has erected 950 solar panels near Marietta, enough to power 35 homes. Anadarko-based Western Farmers Electric Cooperative has put up a solar farm with 20,000 solar panels near Cyril in southwestern Oklahoma providing enough power for 400 homes. WFEC is also setting up solar farms at Tuttle, Hinton, Marietta and south of Fort Cobb.

Tri-County Electric Cooperative has a solar farm near Hooker in the Oklahoma Panhandle, and Oklahoma Electric Cooperative operates a solar farm near Norman.

Eastern Oklahoma, especially around Tulsa, though, is lagging behind. American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma is just now making plans to enter the solar arena, pressured by the fact that its last coal generator is scheduled to shut down at Oologah in 2026.

“We plan to get into it in the next couple of years, around 2020, and then add a little bit year after year,” said AEP-PSO spokesman Stan Whiteford. He said the company will include solar in its portfolio as both a means to diversify and to reduce its dependency on coal.

But, as O’Shea points out, one problem providers are having in entering the solar market is cost.

“The cost of solar technology continues to decline, but our rates are so low in Oklahoma that it’s not that economical,” said O’Shea.

9

10

CityPlex Towers is Oklahoma’s largest mixed use office and medical complex comprising of approximately 2.2 million square feet. The structure is reinforced, poured in place concrete, built in 1980. The owner is Oral Roberts University, while management and leasing is handled by Trinity Corporate Real Estate Advisors, LLC. The CityPlex Towers complex consists of three towers a 20, 30, and 60 feet tall. The 60 foot story tower is supported on a four story base that extends underneath all three towers.

By the late 2000’s CityPlex Towers had become very expensive to operate due to age, deferred maintenance, and inherent design flaws including the lack of a building automation system. Starting in 2009 to today, CityPlex Towers has completed several major capital improvement projects totaling over $20 million dollars, with the majority of the contracts awarded to small businesses in Oklahoma. These major capital improvement and energy efficiency projects have reduced the overall energy usage by 50%. CityPlex has improved the following:

• A complete new TPO roofing replacement of all three towers and the base building roof in 2009. In 2016, a storm with high winds damaged a large portion of the base roof which was enough to require a full base roof replacement.

• A curtain wall joint seal of all three towers to stop window and joint leaks was completed in early 2016. The entire project took 3 years with as many as five, three men crews working at the same time. Crews worked throughout the year and in most weather conditions to complete this project.

• The atrium roof replacement took 2 years to complete. The roof slopes in two directions with the highest point at 12 stories and angles as much as 45 degrees.

• Three new 500 kW back-up emergency generators were added to replace the original backup system.

David King with CityPlex Towers and Oral Roberts University

AEEOK MEMBERSHIP HIGHLIGHT

11

• A new fire alarm system for all 110 floors was completed to ensure life safety and to improve the overall smoke detection system.

• A de-humidification system was added to improve humidity control to the 20 surgery suites. This included 3 new fresh air fans, a very large surface 10 roll chilled water coil (supercoil) to ensure air time across the coil would be long enough to remove moisture from the fresh air. A 50 ton chiller (ice chiller) designed for low water temperature just for the supercoil. Currently 1,000 ton hours of ice tanks are being built so building operators can turn off the ice chiller during peak electric load times.

• Cooling towers with heat exchangers for free cooling.

• A 1,500 ton chiller replacement.

• The addition of a 700 and 60 Hp Steam Boilers to replace one of the two existing 2,500 Hp boilers.

• 230+ AHU’s pneumatic controls replaced with direct digital controls which also allow start/stop scheduling for the first time in the facilities history.

• 250+ speed control drives added to water pumps and air handling units.

• 26 electric and 8 water sub-meters have been added to help understand and control electric and water usage.

• Right sizing pumps when conditions allow. Domestic water jockey pumps in two locations now serve 98% of the daily pumping load at a total of 20hp, allowed for the removal of a 100hp from the 24/7 schedule. A boiler feed water pump was reduced from 40hp to 15hp with the replacement of one of the 2,500 hp boilers.

• Air conditioning condensate recovery system added in 2016 collected and transferred 500,000 gallons of cooling clean water into the cooling tower makeup system as of today the system has collected 1,000,000 gallons.

• During new tenant build outs replace lighting. As of today over 2,000 2X4 and 2X2 troffer T-8 lighting fixtures have been replaced with LED lighting.

CityPlex Towers has a team that has worked through many challenges when dealing with a 30+ year, 2.2 million square feet facility. For example the new fire alarm system was replaced while the building was occupied with many types of tenants including three independent hospitals; the fire system had to remain operational throughout transition. The new system had to interface with existing equipment and hundreds of smoke dampers and other controls throughout the facility. Most of the wiring and controls were traced and verified as the upgrade progressed. The project took longer than was projected, but the outcome was a success. Another example, the three new 500 kW back-up emergency generators required extra local and state approvals, due to the

12

existence of three independent hospitals, each having to submit their permit approvals. This process delayed the install of the generators, but again the project was successful.

I am proud to report that CityPlex Towers has an energy star score of 93, out of 100, for the last 3 years. In 2015, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, recognized CityPlex Tower’s energy efficiency team at their outstanding performance.

PSO 2015 BEST ENERGY MANAGEMENT TEAM AWARD

Clay Hathaway with PSO presented the 2015 PSO Best Energy Management Team award to David King, Director of Energy Management for CityPlex Towers and Oral Roberts University.

PSO recognized the outstanding energy reduction that CityPlex Towers has achieved in teh past few years which lead to a 50% annual kWh reduction and a 30% demand savings. CityPlex Towers also received a score of 93 for the 2015 Energy Star Certification.

David King (left) and Clay Hathaway (right)

Before

After

Follow AEEOK on

13

BY ANNA MAZARAKIS AND RICHARD FELONI | NOVEMBER 2017

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman aspired to be a public intellectual in college. He abandoned that notion and became an entrepreneur and investor in Silicon Valley instead. He founded an early social network called SocialNet.com in 1997, and he founded the professional networking website, LinkedIn, in 2002. Hoffman joined Business Insider’s podcast, “Success! How I Did It,” and shared how he came to identify as an entrepreneur.

Reid Hoffman: I actually never really thought about myself as an entrepreneur until years into LinkedIn, which is after I had founded my second company. What I had been focused on, almost from those early days at Putney, was just building stuff, being a public intellectual, making something happen, and then what’s the way you do that?

Oh, well, you raise some money, you hire some people, you launch your product. It’s what an entrepreneur does, but it wasn’t like my identity was: “I aspire to be an entrepreneur. I think of myself as an entrepreneur.” I was more thinking of myself as, “I’m a person who is helping create ecosystems, and what’s the way that I can do that?” And I realized that one of the pieces of progress that we’re making as a society and as a world is realizing that entrepreneurship isn’t just the odd kid at school or the occasional or random thing, but, at least in some areas of the world like Silicon Valley and China — but also a number of others; entrepreneurship is spreading — to almost be a pattern that’s a choice, not for everybody, but for a number of people. And the creation of these companies and these products and services is part of how we’re going to create more products and services. We’re going to create more jobs.

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman did not always identify as an entrepreneur – here’s why

Read MoreClick here to

Listen Now

14

10 Steps To Advanced Water EfficiencyIf you've already looked at water efficiency in your

buildings, here are 10 more things you can do to keep

the momentum going...

Building control systems keep hospitals in syncHospitals are complex environments that can challenge

the capabilities of the best building automation systems

(BAS). These 24/7 facilities must maintain temperature,

pressurization...

Beyond Energy ManagementEnergy management remains a top focus for

organizations that have committed to sustainability.

Initiatives such as lighting and HVAC upgrades tend to

be the most highly...

Demand Response Programs Progress Beyond EmergenciesDemand response programs in the United States are

growing more sophisticated and customer-friendly,

according to the 2017 Utility...

to read more click here.

to read more click here.

to read more click here.

to read more click here.

4 Peak Demand Reduction StrategiesThe most common contributor to high peak demand

is multiple energy intensive processes running at the

same time. A common... to read more click here.

15

Facebook’s Zuckerberg Checks Out Oklahoma Wind Power

BY BETSY LILLIAN | NOVEMBER 2017

As part of his “Year of Travel” challenge, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently stopped by a wind farm in Oklahoma to explore what wind energy is bringing to the state.

In a Facebook post published on Wednesday, the billionaire entrepreneur wrote that during his visit to a wind project outside Duncan – NextEra Energy Resources’ Rush Springs Wind Energy Center – he learned from workers at the facility that Oklahoma

is “on track to become the nation’s second-biggest producer of wind energy behind Texas”; that “working in wind energy is a more sustainable lifestyle than oil and gas,” even though Oklahoma is still the third-biggest natural gas producer in the U.S.; and that wind is providing high-paying jobs.

continued >>

16

“For the workers I met, they said working in wind energy is a more sustainable lifestyle than oil and gas,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Oil prices are volatile, and any oil well eventually taps oil, so you have to move from place to place, often working shifts a few weeks away from home at a time. By contrast, wind is renewable and doesn’t run out, so the jobs are more consistent and sustainable.”

Regarding the notion that new technology can both create and kill jobs, he said, “I’ve seen both this year – improving tech has created more jobs in some industries, and in others, it has eliminated jobs. But perhaps the more common dynamic I’ve seen is that the number of jobs stays about the same, but in order to operate the increasingly advanced technology, people need more training and therefore get more pay.

“That seemed to be the case here. More efficient wind turbines means we need fewer turbines to produce the energy we need. But the turbines are more advanced and more complex to operate, so almost everyone I met had gone to special training programs to get these higher-paying jobs,” he continued.

In response to a comment from a “12-year veteran of the oilfield,” who wrote that “[w]ithout the jobs we have done through the years, nothing that you have built would have been possible,” Zuckerberg maintained that he has “a lot of respect for everyone working in [the oil] industry.” He then pointed to two visits he made earlier in the year to an oil drill ship in the Gulf of Mexico and to a fracking facility in North Dakota.

During his North Dakota visit in July, Zuckerburg said, “I believe stopping climate change is one of the most important challenges of our generation. Given that, I think it’s even more important to learn about our energy industry, even if it’s controversial. I encourage all of you to get out and learn about all perspectives on issues you care about, too.”

Facebook, which has a goal of powering at least 50% of its global energy with renewables in 2018 and an eventual goal of 100%, uses wind to power a number of its U.S. data centers.

17

LEED and HVAC: How To Balance Costs And BenefitsBY APRIL RUGGLES | OCTOBER 2017

Understand how HVAC contributes to LEED certification, efficiency, and cost reduction.

There are many reasons that building owners

may want to pursue some level of Leadership

in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

certification for a new facility. Certainly they can

achieve high levels of sustainability without the

LEED label, but the label itself offers value. It can demonstrate to stakeholders, whether students

on a campus, citizens in a community, or investors in a company, a commitment to building

environmentally sensitive facilities. LEED certification is so highly valued that developers are able to

charge more in rents in certain markets when a building is LEED certified.

To obtain LEED certification, building owners and facility staff — as well as designers and builders

— have to take steps to mitigate environmental impacts and maximize human comfort during

design and construction. But with those benefits come costs. Deciding to attempt LEED certification

requires careful planning and investigation of overall costs. Many environmentalists state with

assurance that the costs of building a LEED facility are more than offset by the benefits. While there

are costs and resulting benefits, some of these benefits are hard to quantify.

LEED certification coalesces building design disciplines: Building architecture, landscape

architecture, plumbing, lighting, and HVAC are all major players. At first glance, it is hard to tell

where a building owner should invest to glean the highest returns. That is all the more true because

different owners will focus on different factors — initial investment, monetary returns, occupant

comfort, or environmental impacts. A careful evaluation of the costs and returns will help determine

whether and how LEED certification meets the needs of each specific building owner.

The HVAC system has a major impact on any attempt to obtain LEED certification, as would be

expected. HVAC consumes a significant portion of a building’s annual energy use. Thus there are

significant opportunities for energy savings. HVAC credits fall into two categories: Energy and

18

Atmosphere, which is focused on the building’s energy consumption and release of pollutants, and

Indoor Environmental Quality, which is focused on the health and productivity benefits to occupants.

An early step in the process of deciding whether to seek LEED certification is to understand the

categories, the benefits that LEED aims to achieve, and the potential returns of each.

Each base category establishes one or more prerequisites, which are the minimum requirements

to achieve any level of LEED certification. Prerequisites do not earn any LEED points, but the

prerequisites have to be achieved to gain LEED certification. For example, in the Energy and

Atmosphere category, one prerequisite sets a minimum level of energy efficiency. It establishes a

baseline energy performance determined by the type of building and systems; that baseline includes

all the energy costs associated with the building, not just those tied to the HVAC system. The goal is

to demonstrate, at a minimum, that the building will use less energy annually than a code minimum

facility. Over time, these energy reduction targets are increased in an effort to drive the construction

of buildings that use less and less energy.

Many factors affect a building’s HVAC energy use. Certainly the choice of equipment and systems

plays a major role, but so do building orientation, insulation, shading, etc.  Because the architect,

instead of the HVAC engineers, often makes these choices, the entire design team has to work

together in order to achieve success.

Today, many new and creative technologies will help drive down energy use. For cooling systems,

magnetic bearing chillers increase overall system efficiency by reducing friction in the compressor.

For heating, condensing boilers capture waste heat that normally leaves the stack and use it for

heating. Both systems can achieve less overall energy consumption. 

Controls are another step toward HVAC efficiency, as they have the highest ratio of results versus

investment. The controls portion includes use of variable frequency drives on chillers, pumps, fans,

direct digital controls, water and air-side economizers, demand-controlled ventilation, multi-speed

fans, and staged cooling. These technologies help ensure that energy is not used when there is

no requirement to do so, or even take wasted heat from one part of the facility to a place it can be

used.

The HVAC system is the focus of another Energy and Atmosphere prerequisite: Fundamental

Refrigerant Management. The intent of this prerequisite is to reduce ozone depletion.

Chlorofluorocarbons were once widely used as refrigerants but were phased out, due to their role

in ozone depletion, by the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty. Research on alternatives has

19

been ongoing since the 1970s and these alternatives are now widely available, inexpensive and high

performing.

FROM PREREQUISITES TO POINTS

Once the prerequisites are fulfilled, it is time to delve into the points available for energy efficient

HVAC design. One key credit in this category is Optimize Energy Performance. As its name implies,

this credit seeks to improve energy performance. While the prerequisite required meeting a

minimum threshold, this credit rewards buildings that go above and beyond the threshold. The

higher the energy cost savings, the more LEED points are awarded.

A building can also achieve high energy performance while limiting the initial cost premium by using

clever design techniques such as high-speed centrifugal compressors, variable speed compressors,

heat exchangers, highly adept system sizing, evaporative cooling, and heat recovery when working

toward additional points. Geothermal systems, whether taking heat from the ground or using the

ground as a heat sink, can also lead to significantly lower energy use.

As mentioned earlier, it is important to note that the highest levels of HVAC efficiency are possible

only if system design is coordinated with site planning, envelope design, and water system design.

Choices most often involve tradeoffs. What may earn more points for energy efficiency may cost

points in terms of additional water use.

Although the initial investment in HVAC system efficiency is high, the environmental benefit can

have a significant impact on reducing the facility’s annual operating budget each year. This is not as

directly measurable with other LEED categories.

RENEWABLE ENERGY AND HVAC

Another Energy and Atmosphere credit — On-Site Renewable Energy — encourages the use of on-

site renewable energy to reduce the impacts of fossil fuels burning. It evaluates energy produced

by renewable energy systems as a percentage of the building’s total energy costs. Photovoltaic and

wind power are often employed to assist with this effort.

Note that while sometimes used interchangeably, LEED has not considered “geo-exchange”

systems renewable. On-site renewable energy is intended to capture the use of renewable energy

sources such as the sun, wind, hydroelectricity, wood chips, etc. Geo-exchange systems are those

where near-surface ground is used as a heat source/sink but the system still relies on electric gas

continue reading...

The Oklahoma Association of Energy Engineers

New Year

Happy