Overall Rating	Platinum - expired
Overall Score	86.09
Liaison	Jennifer Andrews
Submission Date	Aug. 16, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of New Hampshire
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.61 / 4.00	Jennifer Andrews Project Director Sustainability Institute

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total energy consumption (electric and non-electric)

Total energy consumption, performance year:

981,312.19 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)	0 Kilowatt-hours	0 MMBtu
Electricity from on-site, clean and renewable sources (rights retained/retired)	0 Kilowatt-hours	0 MMBtu

A brief description of the certified/verified sources of clean and renewable electricity:

While we contract with several small community hydropower providers for our purchased electricity (see https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2016/08/artisanal-energy), we do not own the RECs associated with this power so do not claim it above.

A brief description of the on-site renewable electricity generating facilities/devices:

Likewise, We have a campus co-generation plant, powered largely by landfill gas, which supplies the vast majority of our electric needs. However, we sell the RECs associated with the production of this power, so claim 0.

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	401,711.35 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:

As mentioned above, EcoLine, a landfill gas pipeline constructed by NH in partnership with Waste Management, is the primary fuel source for the on-campus COGEN plant for heating, cooling and electricity.

UNH sells REC's for the electricity generated off our EcoLine landfill gas pipeline into our cogeneration plan - but retain the rights to the environmental attributes of the thermal energy generated.

https://www.unh.edu/sustainability/campus-initiatives/energy

We also have a small solar thermal installation on campus.

Our award-winning Northwest Heating Plant uses dry wood-chips sourced in the region--though it is not included in the figures noted above since we can not confirm FSC certification for all of our wood chip vendors.

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	69,871,000 Kilowatt-hours	238,399.85 MMBtu

A brief description of the unbundled renewable energy products:

Green e Certified Wind Renewable Energy Certificates from 3Degrees Group. 69,871 RECs. Green e Reporting Year 2019

We purchased 69,871 MWh because that was equal to our previous year's total electricity demand on campus (both the electricity we purchased and the electricity we generated on-site, and we wanted to ensure that we could legitimately state that 100% of our electricity use is renewable.)

Metrics used in scoring

Total clean and renewable energy generated or purchased:

640,111.20 MMBtu

Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:

65.23

Optional Fields

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

http://www.sustainableunh.unh.edu/ecolinehttps://www.unh.edu/sustainability/campus-initiatives/energy

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	---
Coal	---
Geothermal	---
Hydro	---
Natural gas	---
Nuclear	---
Solar photovoltaic	---
Wind	100
Other (please specify and explain below)	---

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

UNH is powering its campus with enriched and purified natural gas, courtesy of the local landfill, meaning that every bit of trash that ends up there ends up powering the university (Durham) while lowering energy costs and decreasing environmental impact. UNH sells Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) from this project and reinvests part of the proceeds back into energy efficiency initiatives on campus. As such, we cannot claim the renewable benefits associated with on-campus electricity production. To counter this, and to further support the development of renewable energy technologies and markets in the US we purchase Green Certified Renewable Energy Credits. Our generation mix indicated above, then, is based on that REC purchase.

Energy used for heating buildings, by source::

	Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100)
Biomass	---
Coal	---
Electricity	---
Fuel oil	---
Geothermal	---
Natural gas	---
Other (please specify and explain below)	---

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

---

Additional documentation to support the submission:

Green-e_Attestation_University_of_New_Hampshire_3898_RY2019_14168_040120.pdf

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Based on the energy allocations used for our GHG inventory (which are themselves based on best practice guidance from the EPA Climate Leaders program), roughly 60% of the energy used to power our co-generation plant is allocated to thermal energy production and 40% is allocated to electricity production. Since, as noted above, we retain the thermal renewable energy credits associated with our use of local landflll gas, the figure above under "Option 2" includes the renewable thermal energy we utilize from the Ecoline pipeline (401,151 MMBTU in FY 2019); it also includes our solar thermal installations (560 MMBTU in FY 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.