Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.48
Liaison Amy Brunvand
Submission Date Oct. 21, 2020

STARS v2.2

University of Utah
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.42 / 4.00 William Leach
Sustainability Project Coordinator
Facilities Management
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total energy consumption, performance year:
2,535,048.01 MMBtu

Clean and renewable electricity (report kilowatt-hours):
kWh MMBtu
Imported electricity from certified/verified clean and renewable sources (i.e., bundled green power purchases) 77,519,984 Kilowatt-hours 264,498.19 MMBtu
Electricity from on-site, clean and renewable sources (rights retained/retired) 1,060,525 Kilowatt-hours 3,618.51 MMBtu

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

During the reporting period, about 5% of grid-purchased electricity came from a power purchase agreement with WAPA and was sourced from hydro power. By the Fall of 2019, a large 20MW geothermal power purchase agreement with Cyrq Energy began delivering renewable energy and more than half of the University's electricity became sourced from renewables.


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

The University has 10 small solar PV installations across campus, which add up to about 1 MW in capacity. Four installations are under power purchase agreements and the others are fully-owned by the University.


Clean and renewable thermal energy (report MMBtu):
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:

Not Applicable


A brief description of the certified/verified sources of clean and renewable thermal energy:
---

Unbundled renewable energy products (report kWh):
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:

Prior to the reporting period, the University of Utah participated in the Rocky Mountain Power's Blue Sky program, purchasing 750 blocks per month. Each block is the equivalent of 200 kWh from renewable sources. Purchasing through the Blue Sky program ended in Nov 2018 as construction was underway for the much-larger geothermal power purchase agreement.


Total clean and renewable energy generated or purchased:
268,116.70 MMBtu

Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:
10.58

Website URL where information about the institution’s support for clean and renewable energy is available:
Electricity use, by source (percentage of total, 0-100):
Percentage of total electricity use (0-100)
Biomass 0
Coal 65.80
Geothermal 1.10
Hydro 2.40
Natural gas 22.20
Nuclear 0
Solar photovoltaic 5.60
Wind 2
Other (please specify and explain below) 0.90

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

Grid data is from eGRID 2018 for Utah state. This profile does not include power generated on campus. The U of U installed a combined heat and power plant in 2008 that provides 6 megawatts (MW) of power.


Energy used for heating buildings, by source::
Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100)
Biomass ---
Coal ---
Electricity 2.30
Fuel oil ---
Geothermal ---
Natural gas 97.70
Other (please specify and explain below) ---

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

During the reporting period, only a small portion of buildings utilize electrically-sourced heating technologies including electric resistance, heat pumps, and, more-recently, variable refrigerant flow (VRF).


Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

REPORTING PERIOD
The applicable period of renewables reporting is from April 2019 to March 2020. Because geothermal energy began delivery in Nov 2019, this still only represents a portion of the renewables that the University of Utah will be receiving annually during the 25 year PPA.

SOURCES

U.S. EPA eGRID 2018 for the State of Utah.

Facilities Sustainability & Energy track renewable energy production and heating technologies by building.

Rocky Mountain Power Blue Sky Program Website (2020)
https://www.rockymountainpower.net/savings-energy-choices/blue-sky-renewable-energy.html


REPORTING PERIOD
The applicable period of renewables reporting is from April 2019 to March 2020. Because geothermal energy began delivery in Nov 2019, this still only represents a portion of the renewables that the University of Utah will be receiving annually during the 25 year PPA.

SOURCES

U.S. EPA eGRID 2018 for the State of Utah.

Facilities Sustainability & Energy track renewable energy production and heating technologies by building.

Rocky Mountain Power Blue Sky Program Website (2020)
https://www.rockymountainpower.net/savings-energy-choices/blue-sky-renewable-energy.html

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.