| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 70.12 |
| Liaison | Maria Dahmus |
| Submission Date | March 5, 2021 |
University of St. Thomas
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.28 / 4.00 |
David
Clysdale Mechanical Maintenance Supervisor Facilities Management |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
Total energy consumption (electric and non-electric)
298,390.29
MMBtu
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) | 6,199,716.50 Kilowatt-hours | 21,153.43 MMBtu |
| Electricity from on-site, clean and renewable sources (rights retained/retired) | 4,178 Kilowatt-hours | 14.26 MMBtu |
A brief description of the certified/verified sources of clean and renewable electricity:
According to Xcel Energy, the University's electric utility provider, the "Certified Renewable Percentage" of electricity provided was 23.2% in 2019. Xcel Energy's website states:
"In previous years, we only retired enough Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) annually to meet Minnesota’s Renewable Energy Standard, which requires that 25% of our electricity come from renewable sources. But today, we retire RECs to cover the entire renewable energy portion of the electricity that we deliver to you. That means you can take full credit for our renewables and claim Certified Renewable Percentage with confidence that it’s not being claimed by anyone else."
Source: https://www.xcelenergy.com/energy_portfolio/renewable_energy/certified_renewable_percentage
"In previous years, we only retired enough Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) annually to meet Minnesota’s Renewable Energy Standard, which requires that 25% of our electricity come from renewable sources. But today, we retire RECs to cover the entire renewable energy portion of the electricity that we deliver to you. That means you can take full credit for our renewables and claim Certified Renewable Percentage with confidence that it’s not being claimed by anyone else."
Source: https://www.xcelenergy.com/energy_portfolio/renewable_energy/certified_renewable_percentage
A brief description of the on-site renewable electricity generating facilities/devices:
The university currently has three rooftop solar arrays:
1) Solar Array: 40kW Anderson Student Center
2) Solar Array: 3.5kW Brady Hall
3) Solar Array: 48kW McCarthy Gym
The McCarthy Gym array is part of the microgrid research facility and it is currently operating in "island mode."
1) Solar Array: 40kW Anderson Student Center
2) Solar Array: 3.5kW Brady Hall
3) Solar Array: 48kW McCarthy Gym
The McCarthy Gym array is part of the microgrid research facility and it is currently operating in "island mode."
Clean and renewable thermal energy
| MMBtu | |
| Clean and renewable stationary fuels used on-site to generate thermal energy | 0 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:
---
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 | 0 Kilowatt-hours | 0 MMBtu |
A brief description of the unbundled renewable energy products:
---
Metrics used in scoring
21,167.69
MMBtu
Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:
7.09
Optional Fields
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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 | 2 |
| Coal | 23 |
| Geothermal | 0 |
| Hydro | 6 |
| Natural gas | 23 |
| Nuclear | 28 |
| Solar photovoltaic | 3 |
| Wind | 15 |
| Other (please specify and explain below) | 0 |
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 | 0 |
| Coal | 0 |
| Electricity | 0 |
| Fuel oil | 0 |
| Geothermal | 0 |
| Natural gas | 100 |
| Other (please specify and explain below) | --- |
A brief description of other sources of building heating not specified above:
---
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The solar array on top of the Anderson Student Center produced 32,900 kWh of electricity in the performance year. However, the utility owns the renewable energy credits from this system for the first ten years of production. Production data for the solar array on top of the student center is available online: http://egauge14405.egaug.es/
Percentage of electricity from different sources is based on Xcel Energy's Saint Paul 2019 Community Energy Report: https://www.xcelenergy.com/staticfiles/xe-responsive/Working%20With%20Us/Community%20Energy%20Reports/City-of-Saint-Paul-2019.xls
Percentage of electricity from different sources is based on Xcel Energy's Saint Paul 2019 Community Energy Report: https://www.xcelenergy.com/staticfiles/xe-responsive/Working%20With%20Us/Community%20Energy%20Reports/City-of-Saint-Paul-2019.xls
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.