| Overall Rating | Platinum |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 86.33 |
| Liaison | Lisa Kilgore |
| Submission Date | March 1, 2024 |
Cornell University
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.89 / 4.00 |
Sarah
Carson Director, Campus Sustainability Office FS - Energy & Sustainability |
Total energy consumption (electric and non-electric)
Clean and renewable energy sources
Clean and renewable electricity
| kWh | MMBtu | |
| Imported electricity from certified/verified clean and renewable sources (i.e., bundled green power purchases) | 14,403,000 Kilowatt-hours | 49,143.04 MMBtu |
| Electricity from on-site, clean and renewable sources (rights retained/retired) | 6,026,876 Kilowatt-hours | 20,563.70 MMBtu |
A brief description of the certified/verified sources of clean and renewable electricity:
Cornell has multiple PPAs for solar PV. The facilities are located on Cornell lands. Cornell owns the environmental attributes and retires the attributes via the appropriate regulatory process for New York State thru NYGATS and RGGI. The NYSDEC determines the amount of the carbon allowance based on the documented generation. These PV Solar facilities provide renewable energy to the Ithaca Campus via remote net metering, which involves monetizing the electricity and crediting the Ithaca campus accounts.
A brief description of the on-site renewable electricity generating facilities/devices:
Cornell owns and operates two hydroelectric generators. The turbine manufacturer is Ossberger and the units are rated at 712 kw and 997 kw. In addition, there are multiple campus building with roof-top PV. Hydro generation FY23 ~ 5.1 million kwh FY23 generation ~1,000,000 kWh. On site facilites: NCRE (5 residence halls), Klarman Hall, Campus Store, Fernow, Human Ecology and Snee Hall
Clean and renewable thermal energy
| MMBtu | |
| Clean and renewable stationary fuels used on-site to generate thermal energy | 552,883 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:
Cornell also has a heat exchange facility (Lake Source Cooling) to produce up to 18,000 peak tons of chilled water for campus. It generates renewable cooling by exchange heat to cold water from deep in Cayuga Lake saving >80% of the energy of conventional cooling (~25 million kWhr/year, about 10% of total campus electricity usage).FY22 LSC production ~ 46.1 million ton-hrs, 1 ton-hr = 12,000 Btu Cornell has installed two solar hydronic hot water systems. The systems use the solar energy to heat water in evacuated tube solar collectors. The systems are designed to offset the need for fossil fuels to provide a portion of the heating and hot water needs of two campus facilities (23 total panels with 30 tubes each). Each tube is rated at 1,000 btu/day at peak summer solar insolation.
A brief description of the certified/verified sources of clean and renewable thermal energy:
Unbundled renewable energy products
| kWh | MMBtu | |
| Purchased RECs, GOs, I-RECs or equivalent unbundled renewable energy products certified by a third party | 23,851,000 Kilowatt-hours | 81,379.61 MMBtu |
A brief description of the unbundled renewable energy products:
As part of the the lease supporting the Cascadilla Community Solar Farm at Cornell University that came online in 1/20, Cornell is entitled to the project RECs.
Metrics used in scoring
Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:
Optional Fields
Sierra magazine requests the following information from U.S. institutions that wish to share data with that organization:
| Percentage of total electricity use (0-100) | |
| Biomass | 1.60 |
| Coal | 0 |
| Geothermal | 0 |
| Hydro | 33.20 |
| Natural gas | 25.90 |
| Nuclear | 33.20 |
| Solar photovoltaic | 0.90 |
| Wind | 4.90 |
| Other (please specify and explain below) | 0.30 |
A brief description of other sources of electricity not specified above:
The above % apply only to grid purchased electricity Other: Includes fuel oil, Notes: the %'s above are upstate NY State Grid values (eGRID2021) issued 2023. Cornell operates an on site co-generation plant, which is 99% natural gas. Cornell operates an on-site small scale hydro-plant, which provides approximately 2% of campus electric usage.
Energy used for heating buildings, by source::
| Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100) | |
| Biomass | --- |
| Coal | --- |
| Electricity | --- |
| Fuel oil | 0.01 |
| Geothermal | --- |
| Natural gas | 99.90 |
| 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:
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.