Napa Valley Unified School District in California has saved about $280,000 in electricity costs, about 1.8 million kWh, and avoided 460 tons GHG emissions every year for the past two years after implementing a series of energy-efficiency retrofits at several campuses, Napa Valley Register reports. Working with Pacific Gas & Electric and Napa County Energy Watch, the district installed energy-conserving equipment often with zero out-of-pocket expenditure. The $200,000 project, which had a payback of less than a year, included efficient classroom lighting, district-wide computer energy management systems and new pumps for five district swimming pools. The pool pump retrofit alone is expected to save $66,000 annually, while the smart power strips for 2,600 personal computer saves $5,000 per month.
Georgia’s Newton County School System has saved about $125,000 in energy costs over the past two years after implementing an in-house energy management system, according to the Newton Citizen. The system saved $34,767 in fiscal year 2011 and $88,840 in 2012 in energy costs while the district grew its square footage 12 percent by adding two new schools. Reducing HVAC hours by two hours daily has saved more than 12,000 annual energy hours, and turning off all exterior facility lighting on weekends has decreased more than 67,000 energy hours annually.
Kalamazoo Valley Community College has saved $1,096,456 since 2010 by working with Cenergistic on energy-efficiency improvements and using energy-accounting software from EnergyCAP, MLive.com reports. The college’s student services wing has also received LEED silver certification and includes a green roof that helps lower heating and cooling costs.
Energy services provider Ameresco Quantum has started work on an energy savings performance contract for Reed College (pictured) in Portland, Ore. The $5.4 million contract is expected to help the college save more than $2.7 million over 10 years through campus-wide operational and energy efficient upgrades while reducing its annual CO2 emissions by 2.65 million pounds. This project comes on the heels of Ameresco Quantum’s partnership with Portland Public Schools as well as 17 of Washington’s 34 community and technical colleges, for which Ameresco Quantum has obtained nearly $7 million in energy and operational savings grants from the Washington Department of Commerce.