Environmental Sustainability Council

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY COUNCIL ENERGY TRANSITION SUBCOMMITTEE Thursday, September 5, 2019 at City Hall Dogwood Room MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: Members: Tim Stevens (Chair), Thomas Cash, Erika Myers, Andy Sakallaris, Chris Thompson, Dan Sze (City Council liaison), Kate Walker (City staff liaison) Guest Speakers: Deisy Brangman (Brailsford & Dunlavey, Inc.), Jack Chin (Quinn Evans) Deisy and Jack provided a status report on various sustainability features of the new GMHS. Following is a brief summary of their comments. The project is on schedule. No contaminants were discovered during excavation for the foundation. LEED Gold (v.4) is still the target, with 61 points considered fairly certain. Additional points are possible and will be pursued, perhaps leading to Platinum, although v.4 makes that much more challenging. Indoor air quality points will depend on materials. Rainwater management points are unlikely. Most importantly, the design team is still targeting an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 22, which would be among the very best high schools in Virginia in terms of energy efficiency. Planning for net zero energy use is actively in progress. The net zero design calls for maximizing roof space for a photovoltaic (PV) system. As indicated in earlier proposed designs for the school, over 1 MW of PV will be needed, which requires a larger system than can fit on the roofs of GMHS and MEH. Roughly 0.75 MW is planned for the rooftops, with perhaps additional use of parking canopies to achieve net zero. School staff is actively working with Fairfax County staff to determine if our school system can ride Fairfax’s contract to select a PV contractor to provide their PV needs, financed via a Power Purchase Contract. ETS members mentioned the importance of working with Dominion to right size the campus transformer. Kate Walker will resend the information she has to facilitate this planning effort. Well boring for the ground source heat pump system (a.k.a. geothermal) will commence in November. Allied Wells was selected to design and construct the system. Approximately 200 wells, with an expected depth of 500 feet are planned. ETS members suggested a groundbreaking ceremony would be worthwhile. The GMHS design team is planning to install conduit for EV charging stations. Details are yet to be worked out on how many, whether they will use grid or on-site renewable energy, etc. Overall, ETS members considered the report to be very positive, and thanked the speakers for briefing the committee. Construction progress can be obtained at: https://www.fccps.org/campusproject/ Staff Report (Kate Walker) – Kate described conversations with members of the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy who are able to provide support to local jurisdictions in efforts to obtain services of Energy Performance Contractors. The City’s Department of Public Works are supportive. Work continues on planning to replace streetlight bulbs located in the City with LED technology. Dan Sze will ask for a progress report later this year. ETS will assist with a resolution to acknowledge Energy Awareness month, in October. Individuals who have expressed interest in City low income housing assistance will be targeted for information about state- and utility-subsidized free weatherization assistance from Community Housing Partners (https://www.communityhousingpartners.org/). Ongoing Business – Our farmer’s market information event was considered a success, perhaps with a repeat effort at some point. Tim shared info about efforts to raise the state imposed cap on PPA installations. Kate and Tim reported on the event at which Dominion announced their program to help fund EV buses for school systems. Tom shared information on the upcoming Car Free Day event. Next Meeting: Thursday, October 3, 2019