Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 61.98
Liaison Michael Amadori
Submission Date March 2, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Hobart and William Smith Colleges
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.44 / 4.00 Michael Amadori
Sustainability Manager
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total energy consumption (all sources, excluding transportation fuels), performance year :
146,795.38 MMBtu

Option 1 

Total clean and renewable electricity generated on site during the performance year and for which the institution retains or has retired the associated environmental attributes:
6.51 MMBtu

None
A brief description of on-site renewable electricity generating devices :
The Colleges have a 1,980 watt photovoltaic array installed at the Finger Lakes Institute, a research institute located on campus.

Option 2 

Non-electric renewable energy generated on-site, performance year:
208 MMBtu

None
A brief description of on-site renewable non-electric energy devices:
The Colleges have a geothermal heating and cooling system installed at the Finger Lakes Institute consisting of 20 wells drilled 100 feet deep on the hillside overlooking Seneca Lake.

Option 3 

Total clean and renewable electricity generated by off-site projects that the institution catalyzed and for which the institution retains or has retired the associated environmental attributes, performance year:
5,083.88 MMBtu

None
A brief description of off-site, institution-catalyzed, renewable electricity generating devices:
Hobart and William Smith Colleges have recently completed a two-site solar farm project that’s generating up to five megawatts of electricity and represents one of the largest state-supported installations for a New York college or university. The sites will also provide curricular opportunities and provide students with hands-on learning experiences around sustainable energy. The first of the two sites opened in November 2016 and the second started generating electricity in December 2017. The data above only show for FY 2017

Option 4 

Total third-party certified RECs, GOs and/or similar renewable energy products (including renewable electricity purchased through a utility-provided certified green power option) purchased during the performance year:
47,542.81 MMBtu

A brief description of the RECs, GOs and/or similar renewable energy products, including contract timeframes:
The colleges purchase 13,934,000 kWh of electricity from Community Energy. The RECs are through National Wind and are 100% Green-e certified.

Optional Fields

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
http://www.hws.edu/about/green

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

 

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 1
Coal 5
Geothermal ---
Hydro 23
Natural gas 25
Nuclear 33
Solar photovoltaic 10
Wind 3
Other (please specify and explain below) ---

A brief description of other sources of electricity not specified above:
---

Energy used for heating buildings, by source::
Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100)
Biomass ---
Coal ---
Electricity ---
Fuel oil ---
Geothermal 0.20
Natural gas 99.80
Other (please specify and explain below) ---

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

Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:
36.00

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Information on the renewable energy systems of the Finger Lakes Institute can be found at http://www.hws.edu/fli/facility.aspx Solar Farm ribbon cutting: http://www2.hws.edu/hws-celebrates-solar-farm-opening/

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.