Transcript Energy Efficiency Initiatives in Houston

The City’s Path
Toward Sustainable Growth
City of Houston
June 2009
1
Green is here, today
•Green makes economic sense and is good for
our environment
•Green products and services are available
today
•Living and working a greener, more
sustainable lifestyle good for us individually,
our businesses, our community, our world
2
Outcome of Existing Initiatives
The City of Houston has reduced its kwh use by 5.8% from 2004
through 2007 even as services have expanded
Houston’s electricity use has remained flat at ~28.5B kwh annual use
from 2003 through 2008,
•Population growth at 1.9% per annum
•Regional GDP growth of 5.08% per annum (contrasted with a 1.1%
annual kwh growth from 1998 – 2003)
Framework for Sustainability
Buildings: Reduce energy consumption per square foot through increased energy
efficiency measures
Transportation: Migrate to more fuel efficient, cleaner vehicles, fleets across our
region
Infrastructure: Increase energy productivity utilization and long-term reliability
for major infrastructure
•LED Traffic Lights
•Combine Heat and Power
Energy Supplies: Embrace renewable energy sources to provide reliable, secure
power for our region leveraging
•Wind resources
•Solar resources
Environmental Stewardship:
•Divert waste flow away from landfills to recycling paths
•Improve water and air quality across the region
•Plant a million trees
4
Residential Energy Efficiency Program
Implement a “neighborhood by neighborhood” energy efficiency program targeted
at low income, hard to reach homeowners to reduce kwh consumption.
• Approximately 6,000 homes weatherized across 12 different neighborhoods
• Participation rates approach 50%; home owner satisfaction high
• 12 – 18% “weather adjusted” kwh reduction; high as 20% over summer months
• Efficient implementation model; contractors go house to house
5
Green Building Program
Accelerate market transformation of Green Building through leadership, showcases,
and private sector partnership.
• Mayor’s Resolution, passed in June 2004, requiring all new City buildings and major
renovation to be LEED certified (21 buildings, representing 1M sq ft LEED
projects underway)
• Mayor’s Green Building Advisory Committee to showcase LEED buildings in private
sector
• Houston Hope homes built to Energy Star standard. 10 near zero energy homes.
• LEED Quick Start to expedite permitting; graduated fee rebates with LEED certification
• Over 70% of the new Class A commercial office buildings (over 50K sq ft in size)
designing for LEED classification (6 M sq ft committed), nearly half of the residential
new homes built are Energy Star.
6
More Stringent Building Codes
Comprehensive upgrade of the city’s building codes to make Houston a leader in
energy efficiency for new construction and major renovations.
•Local amendments for commercial construction
•Increased energy efficiency amendments: cool roofs, efficient lighting
• Approved by City Council; code in effect August 1, 2008
• Energy efficiency standards for residential construction
• 15% increase in energy efficiency (Energy Star standard for homes)
• Approved by City Council; code to go into effect 10/09
• Enhancing City’s Code enforcement to support code transformation
• Summer workshops on new code; increased staff and training
• Green building resource center to help educate builders and owners
7
Fuel Efficient, Clean Vehicles
Lead the way for Houston to migrate to hybrid vehicles with dramatic increases in
fuel efficiency and cleaner emissions.
• City’s goal to have 50% of non-emergency, administrative fleet (2800 vehicles) by
2010. Currently have over 500 hybrids in our fleet (mostly Prius, some Ford
Escapes).
• Metro is purchasing 100 hybrid buses a year through 2011 for a total of 449 hybrid
buses. Currently 142 in fleet by end of 2008.
• Working with HAS and partners to migrate to clean fuel fleets at airport.
8
Embracing Renewable Energy Sources
Large scale purchases of Renewable Power delivered to City of Houston facilities via
long term contracts.
• COH has purchased 2 billion kwh (50 MW of power) from Texas Wind Farms, at
a fixed wholesale price of 7.5 cents / kwh to be delivered over the next 5 years.
• This will supply 32% of our annual requirements for electrical load.
• The EPA ranks the City of Houston as the number one municipality in terms of the
amount of renewable energy purchased.
• Top 10 of all firms including public and private sector (including such firms as Intel,
WholeFoods)
• Texas leading the nation in Wind power deployment. Nearly 8000 MW of installed
capacity. Represents ~6-7% of state’s power generation. CREZ should enable 18,000
MW
9
Solar Initiatives
Accelerate deployment of solar power in the Houston region
• DOE Solar America City, one of 25 cities across the US. Advisory committee
including COH, HARC, BP, CenterPoint, NASA, Houston Endowment, GHBA,
HISD, Habitat, CCI, HCC, UH, USGBC, SECO, Discovery Green.
www.solarhoustontx.org for outreach.
• Small scale demonstration sites: City code enforcement, City Hall Annex, SPARC
Park at Tinsley Elementary school; Discovery Green Park; 99k home
• 100 kw solar system for the George R Brown Convention Center funded by
Houston Endowment ($850K), BP ($100K), and CenterPoint ($50K).
• K-12 Programs: Demonstration site at SPARC Park (Tinsley Elementary School),
working with HISD to integrate solar
10
Energy Savings with Clinton
Climate Initiative
Significantly reduce energy consumption at City facilities by 20-30% with no
upfront capital by financing through utility savings.
• City of Houston one of the first to contract large scale energy efficiency work:
• 271 facilities, 11 million sq ft under consideration
• Office buildings, libraries, multi-service centers, police stations, fire stations,
health centers
• Building audits, energy efficiency work, measurement/verification
• Audit work underway at 2 million sq ft
•Implementation of energy conservation measures in 1 million sq ft underway.
• Financing driven by lower utility bills available to remove up-front capital costs
11
Energy Efficient LED Traffic Lights
Replace traffic light signals at all 2400 intersections within the city with energy
efficient LEDs.
• 400 intersections completed in 2007 (mostly in downtown district)
• Remaining 2000 intersections to be completed by end of 2009
• 90% reduction in electricity use by new traffic light LEDs; last significantly longer
(7 years versus 1 year)
• Saves the City $10K/day or $3.6M a year in electricity costs
12
CFL Campaigns
Promote and accelerate the adoption of CFLs among Houston homeowners and
businesses.
• Door to door hand-out of 250,000 CFLs to Houston home owners via Mayor’s
Youth Summer Job Corp in partnership with Centerpoint
• 4 bulbs per house plus energy efficiency tips given to estimated 62,500 homes
across Houston
• 100 youths hired by Houston Works
• CenterPoint funding $670K for the effort including bulbs and administration costs
• “Power to People” web site to promote and educate public on energy efficiency
concepts
13
Combined Heat and Power Solutions
Implement CHP solutions at City’s waste water treatment plants to increase energy
utilization & reduce overall grid delivered kwh consumption.
•Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems (also known as cogeneration systems)
generate electricity (and/or mechanical energy) and thermal energy in a single,
integrated system.
•CHP captures the heat that would be rejected in traditional separate
generation of electric or mechanical energy. Heat is used to dry sludge from
wastewater system;
Benefits:
• Annual savings of $1.5 MM with 7 year payback
•NOx emissions reduction – 2.1 tons/year
•CO2 emissions reduction – 5,000 tons/year
14
Environmental Stewardship
•One million trees - Significantly increase the number of trees planted and sustained
across the region through a public – private partnership.
•Waste Diversion - Implement a City wide recycling program to divert woody waste
and yard waste from area landfills.
Improving Air Quality - A regional approach to reduce particularly harmful
emissions such as Benzene and 1,3-Butadiene.
15