Financial Sense and Climate Sensibility:
Renewable Energy at Louisiana’s Universities
Professor Brian A. Salvatore (LSUS, Dept. of Chemistry and Physics)
ALFS Meeting, Alexendria, LA Dec. 14, 2013
Church, et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. (2011)
The Earth is Indeed Warming Overall, but the
Biggest Changes are Happening at the Poles
Energy and our Climate
Lindsey, R., NASA Earth Observatory Study, May 2010.
Energy Consumption on our Campuses
Electricity in Louisiana is cheap! (Commercial rates are
$0.05-$0.07 per kWh, among the lowest in the nation).
Coal, lignite natural gas, and two nuclear-powered
generators are all used here. There is relatively little
renewable energy in Louisiana.
LSU-BR currently uses 225 million kWh of electricity
per year.
LSUS uses 12 million KWh per year.
Our university campuses are very energy inefficient.
Campus Energy Infrastructure
LSUS December 2013
Humidity and Temperature
Look up into the ceilings of the top
floor of any of our campus buildings,
and you can see daylight coming in
through cracks.
15 minutes after the air conditioning
is turned off, temperature jumps by
ca 10 °F on 3rd floor of LSUS Science
Bldg. (Typical daily temperature range
in our Science Bldg. is 69°-95°F in
the summer).
Over 3,000 gallons of water per year
were removed from the air in just one
room.
The fume hoods leak water when it rains.
Lack of Climate Control in Our Buildings
(Detrimental to Chemicals and Equipment)
Campus Buildings
(Temperature Stress and Structural Integrity)
LA Nat. Guard Training Facility (Camp Minden)
Silver LEED Certified Building
LEED Certification Program (GBCI)
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
Four levels of Certification: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum
Sustainability (site-selection)
Building Materials (e.g., recycled)
Energy Efficiency
Indoor Environmental Quality
Renewable Energy (wind, solar)
Design Innovations
GBCI: Green Building Certification Institute
PV Watts Viewer—A Free Service of the US DOE
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Annual solar energy generated by city
(KWh/year per kW rating of system)
Tucson, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
El Paso, TX
Los Angeles, CA
Denver, CO
Palo Alto, CA
Honolulu, HI
Miami, FL
Shreveport, LA
Lake Charles, LA
New Orleans, LA
Baton Rouge, LA
Monroe, LA
Minneapolis, MN
Albany, NY
Detroit, MI
Cleveland, OH
Seattle, WA
Anchorage, AK
1837
1786
1647
1622
1599
1587
1569
1480
1435
1423
1416
1390
1377
1354
1290
1274
1228
1100
908
Solar Cell Production Costs (Example from China)
Achieving Further Cost Reductions
Despite unprecedented cost reductions for solar hardware over
recent years, ca. 50% of the total price paid to plug in residential
or small commercial photovoltaic (PV) systems is related to nonhardware (i.e., interconnections, permitting, and inspection).
Enabling dramatic reductions in non-hardware costs—or "soft
cost"—of solar is now the greatest challenge to achieving costcompetitive solar by 2020.
Federal (and most state) solar tax credits for residential and
business customers expire at the end of 2016.
SunShot Prize ($10 million)
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the
SunShot Prize offers a total of $10 million in cash awards
to the first three teams that repeatedly demonstrate an
average of $1 per watt for the “plug-in price”.
(i.e. for non-hardware related costs, such as permitting,
interconnection, and inspection).
Cash awards for the winners of SunShot Prize:
First place – $7 million
Second place – $2 million
Third place – $1 million
Highlights of Conversation with
ASU’s Professor Harvey Bryan
Arizona State University has installed 23.5 MW of it’s planned 25 MW
solar energy system. Ameresco and NRG are the chief developers
(ASU uses PPA with its electricity vendors).
ASU is ready to install a “microgrid” on its campuses to facilitate
expansion of its solar energy systems beyond 25 MW.
The Campus Metabolism website shows the status of the ASU
green energy system in real time.
ASU Solar Initiative
(http://cm.asu.edu)
Solar Energy on Louisiana’s College Campuses
LSU-BR will soon announce plans to install a 1-MW of PV solar
energy system on the Baton Rouge Campus. This will produce about
$90,000 of electricity per year.
A 3 MW PV system on each campuses (< 8,000 students) would save
$270,000 of electricity expenses per year, which could be reinvested
back into academic programs.
A 10 MW PV system on campuses (> 8,000 students) would save
$900,000 of electricity expenses per year which could be reinvested
back into academic programs.
What would it Take to go completely “Green”?
LSU-Baton Rouge
LSU-Shreveport
180 MW PV system
9 MW PV system
Is this achievable with today’s technology and pricing?
Yes it is. (e.g., Palo Alto, CA is currently constructing an
85 MW PV system which will produce power for $0.07 per kWh)
Achieving just 1/3 of total campus consumption by 2025 would be
superb, and it is a realistic goal!
Different Mechanisms for Accomplishment
Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s)—vendors/developers
bear all of the upfront material and installation costs, then
sell the power back to the universities guaranteed rate over
20 years (after that the universities own the panels and reap
the remaining benefits for the life of systems)---PV panel
lifetimes currently >35 years.
Statewide Renewable Energy/Efficiency Endowment
(goal: raise a $1.5 billion endowment by 2025) raise this
endowment through new taxes and fees on public utilities,
oil and gas refineries, and/or LNG exports. Be ready for
the day (likely within a decade) when these large-scale PV
solar installations cost < $1 per W.
Acknowledgements
John Selmers (Architect, KSA Alliance Inc.)
Don Bloxom (Director of Facility Services, LSU-S )
Professor Harvey Bryan (ASU Solar, Arizona State University)
Elmer Tingler (LSU-S Powerplant)
Peter Davidson (Director of Energy Services, LSU-BR)