Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 66.63
Liaison Mike Evans
Submission Date March 3, 2022

STARS v2.2

Williams College
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.83 / 4.00 Tanja Srebotnjak
Director
Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total energy consumption (electric and non-electric)

Total energy consumption, performance year:
282,804.38 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) 18,649,707 Kilowatt-hours 63,632.80 MMBtu
Electricity from on-site, clean and renewable sources (rights retained/retired) 74.37 Kilowatt-hours 0.25 MMBtu

A brief description of the certified/verified sources of clean and renewable electricity:
On-site solar PV and purchased clean, renewable power.

A brief description of the on-site renewable electricity generating facilities/devices:
Williams has many solar photovoltaic arrays on campus, but most are through a power purchase agreement and we do not retain the RECs for those system. We have four systems for which we retain the RECs-- a 7.2 kw at Morley Labs and a 26.88 kw at Library shelving facility both of which are older and currently do not have working metering. There is a 14kw system on the Log, and at 20kW ground mount system at the Kellogg House. Data is only available for Kellogg House for FY21.

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 82.87 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:
Williams has three solar hot water systems, but unfortunately does not have metering systems on them, so the energy generated from them is not included in this total. Williams also has geothermal energy systems at the Center for Development Economics dormitory and the Fort Bradshaw building. The metered heat pump data is shown here.

A brief description of the certified/verified sources of clean and renewable thermal energy:
The geothermal heat pumps are metered and thus verified internally.

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 19,232,785 Kilowatt-hours 65,622.26 MMBtu

A brief description of the unbundled renewable energy products:
Williams purchased Vintage 2020/2021 LIHI-certified ME Class I hydro RECs equivalent to approximately 79% of campus electricity usage occuring in FY21 (15,250 RECs). MA Class I RECs equivalent to 21% of campus electricity usage are retired on Williams' behalf by the electricity suppliers that serve Williams' campus electricity imports, to meet state Renewable Portfolio Standard and Clean Energy Standard goals.

Metrics used in scoring

Total clean and renewable energy generated or purchased:
129,338.19 MMBtu

Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:
45.73

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 0.60
Coal 0.50
Geothermal 0
Hydro 2.80
Natural gas 43.90
Nuclear 6.10
Solar photovoltaic 10.90
Wind 8.60
Other (please specify and explain below) 26.60

A brief description of other sources of electricity not specified above:
The data reflect the energy mix from our main utility account with National Grid. The National Grid energy label also includes: Other: municipal trash (4.2%) + other renewable (0.7%) + imported power (17%) + oil (4.7%).

A more complete breakdown of all of our electricity sources (we have multiple smaller electric power accounts and generate electricity at our co-gen plant, which runs on natural gas) is not feasible to calculate.

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 8
Geothermal 2
Natural gas 90
Other (please specify and explain below) 0

A brief description of other sources of building heating not specified above:
Values are approximate. The main source is natural gas used by the co-gen central plant. A smaller amount of gas and fuel oil is used at buildings not on the central plant steam pipeline. A small but growing number of buildings is now using geothermal heat exchange systems.

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

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.