http://tribstar.com/news/x334294227/New-Best-Buy-store-aims-for-U-S-Green-Building-Council-LEED-certification

Turn Off The Lights First! Then Use PV To Power Equipment.

It has long been considered that solar photovoltaic is the one technology that will help the world reduce its dependence on fossil fuel for the production of energy.  However, until we attack the problem of electrical energy usage before we add renewables, the world will continue to consume more and more wattage from the utilities.  We must first turn to efficiency for the highest energy using sources and there isn’t a better place to start then electric light energy.

It has been documented that electric light energy is approximately 20% – 50% of an industrial / commercial buildings energy usage.  Much of the energy savings retrofits around world have been focused on this one source of energy usage.  Once a building has efficient lighting put in, dramatic savings could be seen.  However, you still have energy draw and as the world pushes toward carbon neutral buildings and mandates, the use of even the most efficiency energy efficient lighting still must draw energy from the utility.  So today, people are immediately turning to renewables and especially solar.

Charles Zimmerman, VP of International Development for Walmart stands by his company's decision to use high performance prismatic daylighting. Walmart's product of choice in over 2,900 stores and growing... SUNOPTICS SIGNATURE SERIES PRISMATIC SKYLIGHTS

Walmart is now considered the largest user of energy in the world and the world’s largest building owner.  They have long been a user renewable energy, however, their main focus is on building energy efficiency and in 2005 pledged to reduce their energy usage by 30%.  In 2008, only 3 years later, the world’s largest energy user achieved their goals. They document that one technology played a key role in their ability to make this a reality.  It was high performance prismatic daylighting.  Consider this scenario. One 30’ square foot Sunoptics Signature Series prismatic skylight utilized in Walmart provides on average the lighting energy reduction of 1.2kW for 2,800 hours per year or 3,360kWh in energy savings per year with an average installed cost of approximately $1,500 (Conservative, but every roof is different).  The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has published that 1kW of Photovoltaic (PV) panel is roughly 130 square feet and produces 1,440 kWh per year and today is approximate cost of $5 per watt or $7,200 per 1kW panel before installation or accessories. This comparison shows that one 5060 Signature Series Skylight used in Walmart can produce the equivalent of 2.33 kW of PV for less than 1/11th the cost (not including the install side of the PV) and 1/10th the roof footprint of a PV panel array without the need for maintenance and over 30 years of successful projects still in operation today.

As we always say, why use the power of the sun to create energy to bring into an inverter and into a building to turn on the lights, when you can open up the roof, let the sun in properly diffused and just shut the lights off!  After all, there’s no greater efficiency than off!

Nov 30, 2009 

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is reporting energy consumption that is 32 percent lower than the industry average for energy usage per square foot across the Tesco banner’s 130 stores, according to Verisae, Inc., a Minneapolis-based provider of sustainability software.

Fresh & Easy achieved recurring energy-related cost savings of more than $3 million dollars per year, Verisae said. El Segundo, Calif.-based Fresh & Easy uses the company’s energy, environmental and asset management solutions in all locations to drive operational efficiencies, adhere to regulatory compliance and lower its environmental impact.

Fresh & Easy Stores come to life through natural light from SUNOPTICS High Performance Prismatic Daylighting

“These results are very impressive, because the grocer’s percentage of refrigeration floor area per square foot is about 30 percent greater than most other supermarkets,” noted Dr. Abtar Singh, VP of energy for Verisae. “They’re able to maintain low energy consumption through constant monitoring and managing energy usage.” 

Fresh & Easy’s innovative store designs, including upgraded lighting systems and energy-free glass doors, work with Verisae’s Sustainability Resource Planning platform to reduce the chain’s carbon footprint.

Fresh & Easy Stores utilize SUNOPTICS High Performance Prismatic Skylights for their daylighting initiatives

“We have designed our stores to be as energy efficient as possible, from LED lighting to prismatic insulated skylights. Using less energy in our stores is not only good for the environment, it [also] helps us lower our customers’ food bills,” said Steve Hagen, Fresh & Easy’s director of procurement, engineering and maintenance.

Verisae’s sustainability solutions helped the retailer lower refrigerant usage with a leak rate under 10 percent. At roughly 10,000 square feet, Fresh & Easy’s stores are smaller than typical supermarkets. They are found in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. 

- Nielsen Business Media 

Charles Zimmerman on Wal-Mart Roof Surrounded By Sunoptics Signature Series Skylights.

In his speech to the House Select Committee, Charles Zimmerman, Vice President of International Design and Construction for Wal-Mart specifically addresses the greatest energy savings from the largest energy user in the world comes from Wal-Mart’s use of their high performance daylighting system.  Today, Sunoptics high performance prismatic skylights are the sole specified product of choice for Wal-Mart’s high performance daylighting initiatives.

“One of the most visual aspects of the H.E. (High Efficiency) store is the daylight harvesting system.  As the sun comes up on a bright sunny day, we have controls that slowly dim the lights down till they are no longer needed.  That avoids about $50,000,000 per year in utility cost so, it’s a pretty big deal.”  - James McClendon, Director-Engineering, Prototype & New Format Development, Wal-Mart. Excerpt taken from Wal-Mart’s Sustainability 2.0 – Buildings video.

OCTOBER 19, 2009 – JACKSONVILLE, FL   Harris Lighting, Inc., a national designer and manufacturer of energy efficient lighting systems headquartered in Green Cove Springs, has rolled out a new energy efficient lighting system combining traditional interior lighting and skylights, designed for large area warehouses and manufacturing facilities. The first contract for the daylighting system is in an NAS JAX facility. The installation of the new system will start around the first of November and be completed around the first of January.

 

 

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced a new $450 million program last week designed to catalyze a nationwide energy efficiency upgrade that experts estimate could save $100 million annually in utility bills for businesses. The Recovery Act’s “Retrofit Ramp-Up” program will pioneer innovative models for rolling out energy efficiency to hundreds of thousands of businesses. The DOE intends to create models that, when undertaken nationally, will save consumers billions of dollars on their utility bills and make the huge savings of energy efficiency available to everyone. 

“Energy efficiency isn’t just low-hanging fruit; it’s fruit lying on the ground.  We have the tools to reduce energy use at home and at work and to provide huge savings to families and businesses on their energy bills.  But use of these technologies has been far too limited because we lack the simple and effective ways for people to access them,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. 

“The ‘Retrofit Ramp-Up’ program will support large-scale models that can open new energy efficiency opportunities to whole neighborhoods, towns, and, eventually, entire states,” continued Secretary Chu.  “The Recovery Act will allow innovative communities to demonstrate a variety of sustainable business models that can be replicated across the country.”

Daylighting is the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to energy efficiency and renewable energy!

With much of the emphasis from the larger media and political commentary going towards renewable energy, it is about time that the powers that be recognized that efficiency is where the greatest and most cost effective opportunity lies for reduction of carbon based energy use.  Electrical lighting is a major factor in both the energy usage of an industrial/commercial building in both the energy the lights draw as well as the cooling needed to offset the heat the lights create.  High performance daylighting has always been a solution that not only provides rapid return through energy savings, but provides the highest quality lighting with the lowest heat factor per watt available.  The fact is, daylighting not only provides for a reduction in energy, it provides increases to performance and color balance that have been proven to increase productivity, increase sales, and decrease defects for a multitude of industries.  There isn’t a single renewable energy product on the market that can provide the same type of monetary as well as productivity returns available on the market today. 

I applaud the U.S. Secretary of Energy for adopting incentives for the lowest hanging fruit that is available for building owners and providing a true incentive for the adoption of efficiency programs that will far outweigh renewable energy production in helping kick our nations addiction to fossil fuel usage.

Congressmen Waxman & Markey - Authors of Climate Change

The American Clean Energy and Security Act, ACES, H.R. 2454, previously known as the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, was recently passed by the US House of Representatives on 26 June 2009. The Bill is authored by the House Energy & Commerce Committee and is sponsored by the Committee’s Chairman, Congressmen, Henry Waxman (D-California) and by the Chairman of the Environment & Energy Sub-committee, Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts). The bill, regularly referred to as the, “Cap & Trade,” bill, was written to spread country wide mandates for the use of renewable energy systems as well as reduction in carbon output by heavy industry, truck fleets as well as energy producers around the country specifically utilizing coal fired electrical production. The bill will have dramatic changes to the cost of energy as well as large users will now be subject to reducing their global footprint or risk fines or taxation.

Of specific note in this bill is Title III – Reducing Global Warming Pollution. This part of the legislation would create a national cap-and-trade scheme that would reduce GHG emissions from major sources by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 relative to 2005 levels. What most people don’t realize is that a majority of the electrical energy production in the United States is created utilizing coal fired electric plants. Each region of the country has varying degrees of coal fire production, but on average, your local utility could be using greater than 70% of its electrical production directly from coal fire plants. Being a target of this legislation, your utility provider will face a fine or taxation for their production of coal fired electricity which will in turn cause an increase in the cost of electricity as well as the utility to look outside for alternative energy production sources. This too in turn will increase electricity. If you are a large user of electricity or operate a large fleet of trucks like major retailers do, you will also face your own increase in costs through taxation or fines if your production is in excess of 23,000 metric tons.

The basis for this legislation is to incentivize all Americans to look at reducing our carbon footprints while reducing our reliance on foreign oil and carbon based fuels. Without incentives, cheap energy production would be preferred over more costly sources even at a risk to our environment. The reduction of carbon based energy production has always been the mantra of the daylighting world. Electric lighting sources make up approximately 20% – 60% of the energy usage in buildings based on their usage. High performance daylighting is a passive solar way to dramatically reduce your buildings carbon footprint by reducing the use of electricity from both lighting as well as A/C. High performance daylighting with lighting controls can reduce electric lighting use by as much as 70% during the highest cost and highest demand time of the day. It also is doubly important during summer months when energy production is at it’s greatest levels due to the fact that the sun is the single largest impact for the need for electricity. High performance daylighting could single handedly reduce our national carbon output by up to 40% during daylight hours and cost a fraction of other renewable technologies such as photovoltaic panels and wind energy.
If you think about it… the most cost effective and efficient solution for reducing our countries carbon footprint quite clearly could be high performance daylighting. After all, there’s no greater efficiency than off!

CO2 - No longer just pollution. Soon, it's production will cost your business

Well, most people don’t realize that the majority of electricity production in the U.S. comes from coal fired production plants which produces a large amount of our national carbon output. So it makes sense to look to electricity reduction as a way to achieve a carbon neutral facility. Much emphasis has been put on reducing our use of carbon based fuels for the production of electricity by implementing the use of renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and wind power. However, electricity usage from lighting in commercial / industrial buildings amounts for about 40% of the total energy usage on average and most businesses operate under a first shift schedule that typically coincides with daylight hours of the day. For low rise commercial and industrial buildings, high performance daylighting with lighting controls provides the most cost effective and efficient solution for the reduction of electric lighting use in these buildings.

Properly designed, high performance daylighting can eliminate the need for lighting by as much as 70% on an annual basis. If you think about it, why use the power of the sun, to create energy through PV panels, to bring into a building to turn lights on when the sun’s light is so abundant? Even on overcast days, buildings can be illuminated by the sun.

With high performance daylighting with high visible light transmission and 100% diffusion, a building owner can simply utilize the power of the sun to bypass the production of energy and just turn off the lights through lighting controls. This can be done with less than 5% of the roof top, leaving 95% of the roof to include other renewable energy technologies such as PV to help in creating the carbon neutral footprint needed to meet future legislation. Daylighting is the lowest cost solar options for the majority of building owners and a solution that will play a major role in helping to reduce a building’s carbon footprint. After all, there’s no greater efficiency than off!