Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 70.92
Liaison Amy Brunvand
Submission Date Sept. 12, 2023

STARS v2.2

University of Utah
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.70 / 4.00 Emerson Andrews
Sustainable Campus Initiative Fund Manager
Sustainability Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total energy consumption (electric and non-electric)

Total energy consumption, performance year:
2,569,988.20 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) 130,504,000 Kilowatt-hours 445,279.65 MMBtu
Electricity from on-site, clean and renewable sources (rights retained/retired) 1,031,206 Kilowatt-hours 3,518.47 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 (considered not low-impact hydro). Since 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. The University is also contracted with a 20 MW solar facility that is currently under construction.

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. The installations are a combination of PPAs and University-owned.

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 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

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:
The university pursues renewables through PPAs, on-site solar, and about 5% of grid-purchased electricity came from a power purchase agreement with WAPA and was sourced from hydro power. Per STARS' instructions, WAPA hydropower is not included.

Metrics used in scoring

Total clean and renewable energy generated or purchased:
448,798.12 MMBtu

Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:
17.46

Optional Fields

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

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 0.08
Coal 24.02
Geothermal 45.11
Hydro 3.99
Natural gas 22.34
Nuclear 0
Solar photovoltaic 3.57
Wind 0.74
Other (please specify and explain below) 0.15

A brief description of other sources of electricity not specified above:
Data was pulled from 2021 eGrid for the state of Utah and university sourced renewable PPAs. The U of U installed a combined heat and power plant in 2008 that provides 7.5 megawatts (MW) of power.

Energy used for heating buildings, by source::
Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100)
Biomass ---
Coal ---
Electricity 3.54
Fuel oil ---
Geothermal ---
Natural gas 96.46
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). This percentage is expected to increase as the university moves to an electrified approach.

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
REPORTING PERIOD
The applicable period of renewables reporting is from July 2021 to June 2022. Geothermal energy began delivery in Nov 2019, this represents a majority of the renewables that the University of Utah is receiving annually until the solar project comes online. STARS advised that Hydropower purchased from WAPA should not be included as "from certified/verified clean and renewable (sources)," so these were removed.

SOURCES

2021 eGrid State of Utah Data.

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.