Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 72.81
Liaison Ian Johnson
Submission Date March 4, 2022

STARS v2.2

Colorado College
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.17 / 4.00 Michael Brubaker
Campus Operations & Plant Manger
Facilities Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total energy consumption (electric and non-electric)

Total energy consumption, performance year:
170,772 MMBtu

Clean and renewable energy sources

Clean and renewable electricity

Clean and renewable electricity (report kilowatt-hours):
kWh MMBtu
Imported electricity from certified/verified clean and renewable sources (i.e., bundled green power purchases) 13,802,746 Kilowatt-hours 47,094.97 MMBtu
Electricity from on-site, clean and renewable sources (rights retained/retired) 889,337 Kilowatt-hours 3,034.42 MMBtu

A brief description of the certified/verified sources of clean and renewable electricity:
Colorado Springs Utilities Green Power - bundled RECs per PPA

A brief description of the on-site renewable electricity generating facilities/devices:
Colorado College introduced its first on-campus renewable electricity project in spring of 2008. Its 22-kilowatt array was the largest solar electric system in the Colorado Springs Utilities service area at the time of permitting. During 2011/2012, CC purchased panels for the Worner Center (63,000 kWh) and in 2012/2013 for KRCC (3,240 kWh) and the Children's Center (25,200 kWh). In 2014, CC installed new solar arrays on the El Pomar Sports Center (278,000 kWh/yr), the Cornerstone Arts Center (164,600 kWh/yr), the Spencer Center (18 kW array), Synergy House (4.3 kW array), and the Dean's house (10.7 kW array). In 2015, CC installed a new solar array at the Baca Campus (31 kW array). Carbon-neutral Tutt Library (110 KW), East Campus Housing 50 KW.

Clean and renewable thermal energy

Clean and renewable thermal energy (report MMBtu):
MMBtu
Clean and renewable stationary fuels used on-site to generate thermal energy 0 MMBtu
Imported steam, hot water, and/or chilled water from certified/verified clean and renewable sources 0 MMBtu

A brief description of the clean and renewable stationary fuels:
CC has a solar thermal array on the roof of the Worner Student Center.

CC also has a geothermal heating/cooling system under Tava Quad as a heat sink and source for Tutt Library and under the East campus parking lot for the East campus housing constructed in 2017.

A brief description of the certified/verified sources of clean and renewable thermal energy:
---

Unbundled renewable energy products

Unbundled renewable energy products (report kWh):
kWh MMBtu
Purchased RECs, GOs, I-RECs or equivalent unbundled renewable energy products certified by a third party 0 Kilowatt-hours 0 MMBtu

A brief description of the unbundled renewable energy products:
---

Metrics used in scoring

Total clean and renewable energy generated or purchased:
50,129.39 MMBtu

Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:
29.35

Optional Fields

Website URL where information about the institution’s support for clean and renewable energy is available:

Sierra magazine requests the following information from U.S. institutions that wish to share data with that organization:

Electricity use, by source (percentage of total, 0-100):
Percentage of total electricity use (0-100)
Biomass 0
Coal 31.50
Geothermal 0
Hydro 11.43
Natural gas 49.11
Nuclear 0
Solar photovoltaic 4.99
Wind 1.36
Other (please specify and explain below) 1.61

A brief description of other sources of electricity not specified above:
1.61% of CC's electricity is sourced from what Colorado Springs Utilities refers to as "mixed market". It is a make up of the company's day-to-day purchases of resources intended to balance its electric system. It does not consist of wind, hydro or solar but does include natural gas purchases and electric purchases from neighboring suppliers to provide daily balance.

Energy used for heating buildings, by source::
Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100)
Biomass 0
Coal 0
Electricity 0
Fuel oil 0
Geothermal 0
Natural gas 100
Other (please specify and explain below) ---

A brief description of other sources of building heating not specified above:
---

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Source Option 1: Calculated from the Cornerstone, El Pomar, and Synergy PV arrays.

Source Option 3: Calculated from 2 months of the Clean Energy Collective Solar Array and Sunshare Array

This data is from the 2019-2020 academic year as implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic limited comprehensive campus energy usage information.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.