University of California, Davis
OP-8: Clean and Renewable Energy

There is a 4.2 kW photovoltaic system installed at student residences (the Tri-Cooperatives). Starting in January, 2012, the campus brought 10 new roof-top and parking lot photovoltaic systems on-line, totaling 782 kW in new production capacity. The annual production from these systems will be approximately 1,200,000 kWh. There are also solar thermal systems at Campbell Hall and Cuarto Dining Commons, for which there are no output records available at the time of this report.

Methane gas is captured from the on-campus landfill and used in campus boilers.

In December 2011, Student Housing purchased RECs for two years of electricity consumption at Emerson and Webster Halls. The total electricity consumption for two years was estimated to be 2,327,796 kwh. The department also purchased carbon offsets for two years of natural gas consumption at the same buildings. The total natural gas consumption for two years was estimated to be 101,652 therms. Purchased offsets include: 7942.44 MMBTUs (Green-E Certified Clean Source for electricity consumption) and 10,165.2 MMBTUs (Choice Carbon for natural gas consumption). The campus procures the majority of its electricity from the Western Area Power Administration, which generates electricity from large hydropower, which does not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, and for which WAPA provides RECs. The campus received 79,935 WREGIS RECs from WAPA in FY11-12. (These RECs are not Green-e certified, so they are not counted in this credit.)

ecuring clean and renewable energy is important to UC Davis, and the campus is working on several initiatives that are not captured in the reporting year data for this credit. UC Davis is pursuing a project to build an anaerobic on-campus biodigester. This facility, using technology developed by UC Davis faculty (news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10202) and licensed to Clean World (cleanworldpartners.com), will generate clean, renewable electricity from campus organic wastes. The facility will be supplied with approximately 20 tons per day of feed stocks, formerly called waste streams, from agricultural waste, animal manure and bedding, and food waste from campus dining commons. The biogas produced from the biodigester will generate approximately 2 million kWh per year for the campus. The environmental document for the project was published in 2012 and the facility could begin producing electricity by the end of 2013. In addition, please see Innovation Credit 1 for another major clean and renewable energy effort UC Davis is undertaking.