E43: Other Renewable Energy for Electricity Generation – Above Green

Requirement Summary

This measure can be claimed if the project utilizes electricity generated from renewable resources other than solar photovoltaics, such as Biomass, Wind, Geothermal and Hydropower. The renewable energy source must be located on the project site to claim savings. Because the renewable source replaces a proportion of the electricity generated from fossil fuels, renewable sources of electricity are considered an energy efficiency measure.

Intention

The intent of this measure is to reduce the use of electricity generated from fossil fuels such as coal.

Approach/Methodologies

To claim this measure, the design team needs to indicate the proportion of electricity demand offset with renewable energy generated on-site. The total annual electricity consumption of the improved case is calculated by EDGE. The design team must be able to demonstrate that the renewable electricity source can deliver the percentage of electricity consumption claimed by the project.

The renewable electricity source may be centralized for a combination of buildings/dwellings within the development. In these cases, the total must be calculated for the master project and the same average percentage must be used uniformly in all the models for the project.

Potential Technologies/Strategies

Several systems for generating electricity from renewable sources are available at varying levels of efficiency. Efficiency levels of 20% or more can be achieved by some commercially available systems, but others are only capable of delivering as little as 5% efficiency. Design teams must therefore ensure that the specified system achieves the maximum efficiency possible for the available capital.

Relationship to Other Measures

To maximize the percentage contribution from the renewable source of electricity, the electricity demand must first be minimized by reducing energy consumption (such as by using natural instead of mechanical ventilation or by using automatic lighting controls).

Assumptions

The base case assumes that no renewable source of electricity generation is being utilized. When the measure is selected, the default percentage of electricity generated from these sources is zero (0). The improved case shows improvement only after the editable fields for the measure have been filled. A user must select the appropriate source of renewable energy and assign to it the percentage of annual electricity consumption met by the source.

Compliance Guidance

To demonstrate compliance, the design team must briefly describe the system. EDGE will display the annual electricity demand of the improved case in kWh. The percentage of this demand met by the renewable energy system can be claimed by the design team.

Design Stage

Post-Construction Stage

At the design stage, the following must be used to demonstrate compliance:

Supporting calculation showing the proposed system will deliver sufficient electricity to achieve the claimed proportion of total demand; and
Manufacturer’s data sheets for the proposed system; or
Engineering drawings showing the system size and location

At the post-construction stage, the following must be used to demonstrate compliance:

As-built documentation showing the location and size of the system; and
Photographs of the system; and/or
Purchase receipts and delivery notes of the system