| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 72.17 |
| Liaison | Kara Holmstrom |
| Submission Date | March 1, 2019 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Luther College
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.55 / 4.00 |
Jay
Uthoff Director of Facilities Facilities Management |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
Total energy consumption (all sources, excluding transportation fuels), performance year :
152,498
MMBtu
Option 1
3,397
MMBtu
None
A brief description of on-site renewable electricity generating devices :
We purchase through a third party power purchase agreement the electricity from an 820 KW array.
Option 2
0
MMBtu
None
A brief description of on-site renewable non-electric energy devices:
---
Option 3
10,450
MMBtu
None
A brief description of off-site, institution-catalyzed, renewable electricity generating devices:
Luther College retains the environmental attributes from a single turbine project owned by Luther College Wind Energy Project, LLC., a company wholly owned by Luther College.
Option 4
7,065
MMBtu
A brief description of the RECs, GOs and/or similar renewable energy products, including contract timeframes:
We purchase the attributes from a local single turbine project owned by Windvision, LLC.
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---
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 | --- |
| Coal | 74 |
| Geothermal | --- |
| Hydro | --- |
| Natural gas | 4 |
| Nuclear | 18 |
| Solar photovoltaic | --- |
| Wind | 4 |
| Other (please specify and explain below) | --- |
A brief description of other sources of electricity not specified above:
Electricity use by source based on Alliant Energy fuel mix from 2012. This does not take into account Luther's own renewable energy production.
Energy used for heating buildings, by source::
| Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100) | |
| Biomass | --- |
| Coal | --- |
| Electricity | 3 |
| Fuel oil | --- |
| Geothermal | 6.84 |
| Natural gas | 90.16 |
| 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:
13.71
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Nearly 85 percent of Luther’s carbon footprint is associated with the energy we use on campus. Electricity purchases from our coal-intensive part of the U.S. electrical grid account for 51 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions. The direct combustion of fossil fuels in our heating plant and fleet vehicles represents another 33 percent.
Luther College has invested in several renewable energy systems to heat and power our campus and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. These investments include geothermal energy systems at Baker Village (1999) and the Center for the Arts (2003), a 1.6 megawatt (MW) wind turbine on the bluff west of campus (2011), and several solar photovoltaic (PV) systems (2011-2015).
Luther currently hosts the largest amount of solar PV generating capacity in Iowa (1.1 MW). 33% of the electricity used by Luther College comes from renewable sources.
We are in the process of commissioning an Energy Master Plan to reduce our dependence on the coal-heavy electric grid and on our natural gas consumption. This Energy Master Plan will be completed and implemented in the fall of 2019.
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.