Portland Arena Blazes Trail to 771K kWh/year in Energy Savings

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trailblzerThe Rose Garden - home of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers - has undergone a range of efficiency improvements, resulting in a LEED Gold rating by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Some of the projects will have a payback of less than a year, said Justin Zeulner, Director of Property Management for AEG - Rose Quarter, which manages the arena.

Two of the electricity efficiency projects total a potential  771,000 kilowatt hours in savings a year.

A lighting retrofit at the event level of the Rose Garden replaced 175w and 250w Metal Halide with high output T8 and T5 fluorescent fixtures with fixture mounted lighting controls.

The retrofit should result in annual electrical savings of 416,000 kWh, and the cost of the system should pay for itself in less than a year, he said.

Cooling tower VFD and sequencing improvements will save 255,000 kWh a year, Zuelner said, with the system expected to pay for itself in less than three years.

In the area of water savings, water-efficiency projects on the club level of the Rose Garden included upgrades to 60 bathroom fixtures.

Fixtures were replaced with 37.5 percent more efficient flush valves, resulting in water savings of 162,000 gallons, Zuelner said.

Other efforts that contributed to the LEED Gold rating, according to a press release, include the following:

- Recycling - about 60 percent of waste is diverted from landfills, using practices such as post-game sorting and a food-waste composting program with vendors.

- Renewable energy - the team partners with Pacific Power and NW Natural to purchase renewable energy.

- Purchasing - the arena uses more than 95 percent compostable food and beverage serving containers and materials, 100 percent recycled content trash liners, and is replacing disposables with re-usable commodities.

The Rose Garden received 62 out of 100 points in the LEED system, reports OregonLive. It takes 80 points to earn a Platinum ranking.

Other NBA teams are making their arenas more environmentally friendly.

The Golden State Warriors will use a 143 kilowatt solar array to help power a practice facility.

The Warriors join the Phoenix Suns, whose home arena, US Airways Center, is powered by a 194-kilowatt solar system.

Environment + Energy Leader