GreenSage E-zine 08/2008

Sacramento's Health and Human Services — Serving the Community Through Clean Electricity from the Sun

Demonstrating leadership and a commitment to sustainability and the environment, California's Sacramento County officials have successfully commissioned a 100-kW solar array atop the County's Health and Human Services building. The solar energy system, which greatly offsets the electricity used by the facility, is the largest such system on any public building in Sacramento County.

“We are extremely excited to be switching on a new era of sustainability for our facilities,” says Sacramento County Director of Facility Planning, Architecture and Real Estate, Carl Mosher. “I can't think of a more appropriate site for our first solar system. Our goal is to serve the community and to do it in a fiscally and environmentally friendly way. The best evidence that we are doing that is right now we are making clean, electricity from the sun on the roof of the Health and Human Services building.” The solar array is part of a larger, comprehensive energy efficiency retrofit program delivered by Siemens Building Technologies that is projected to produce a broad range of energy and operational savings across county facilities.

At 100 kW, the output of the photovoltaic panels is enough to offset about 50 percent of the building's power needs. “If sustainability is to deliver on its promises and return net positive benefits to everyone living in Sacramento County, it must be approached holistically, that is, from both sides of the meter,” says Siemens Building Technologies' district manager Chris Lofaso. “Emissions-free power generation coupled with demand side reduction is the holistic, higher impact solution. With the efficiency improvements we've made to the building's HVAC equipment and lighting, the solar system is able to make a real and lasting contribution.”

Not only will the performance of the solar energy system and the energy efficiency upgrades and retrofits help save the County and taxpayers money on their energy bill every month, it also qualifies for more than $300,000 in rebates from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) as part of a rebate program designed to incentivize consumers and state and local agencies to invest in energy-saving technologies. According to Siemens, the energy savings from the entire efficiency project will yield nearly $470,000 in SMUD rebate incentives.

Averaging about 265 days either clear or partly cloudy, Sacramento is an ideal location for a solar power generating system. According to Daniel L. Mendonsa, LEED AP, Energy Program Manager for Sacramento County, “Powering the Health and Human Services building with solar-generated electricity reduces the facility's carbon footprint by about 100 metric tons. Counting all the efficiencies across the project, we expect to see an impressive total reduction of 800 metric tons.” According to SMUD, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by that much is equivalent to removing 22 cars off the road or planting 14 acres of trees every year.

With the energy efficiencies created by the installation of new building automation, HVAC equipment, lighting, and controls at the Health and Human Services, Parks and Recreation and Main Water Quality buildings, Siemens and the County expect to realize some $360,000 in operational, maintenance and energy savings; enough to assure a simple payback of less than 10 years.

As a leading provider of energy and environmental solutions, building controls, fire safety and security systems solutions, Siemens Building Technologies, Inc., makes buildings comfortable, safe, secure and less costly to operate. With U.S. headquarters in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Siemens Building Technologies employs 7,400 people in more than 100 locations coast-to-coast. Worldwide, the company has 28,000 employees and operates from more than 500 locations in 51 countries.