Alexander Zhivov
U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center; Champaign, IL, USA
Richard J. Liesen
U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center; Champaign, IL, USA
Stephan Richter
GEF Ingenieur AG, Leimen, Germany
Reinhard Jank
Volkswohnung GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany
David M. Underwood
U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center; Champaign, IL, USA
Dieter Neth
Senergy GmbH, Mossingen, Germany
Alfred Woody
Ventilation/Energy Applications, PLLC, Norton Shores, Michigan
Curt Björk
Curt Björk Consulting, Naxos Island, Greece
Scot Duncan
Retrofit Originality Incorporated, Lake Forest, California
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/ecp110573348Published in: World Renewable Energy Congress - Sweden; 8-13 May; 2011; Linköping; Sweden
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 57:45, p. 3348-3355
Published: 2011-11-03
ISBN: 978-91-7393-070-3
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
U.S. federal agencies are required by law to eliminate fossil fuel use in new and renovated facilities by 2030; and to reduce overall facility energy usage by 30% by 2015 (EISA 2007). Army policy is to achieve 5 net zero energy installations by 2021; 25 net zero energy installations by 2031 and for all installations to achieve net zero energy status by 2058.
The Army operates what are essentially small campuses; or clusters of buildings on its installations. The US Department of Energy (DOE) is focused on the national grid scale or on individual buildings; while the commercial focus is on retrofits to individual buildings. There is a lack of tools and there are only few case studies worldwide that address dynamics of energy systems at the community scale. The Army’s future building energy requirements is a mixture of ultra-low and high energy intensity facilities. Achieving net zero energy economically in these clusters of buildings will require a seamless blend of energy conservation in individual buildings and building systems automation; utility management; and control; power delivery systems with the capability to offer integration of onsite power generation (including renewable energy sources) and energy storage.
When buildings are handled individually each building is optimized for energy efficiency to the economic energy efficiency optimum and then renewables are added until the building is “net zero.” This process works for buildings with a low energy intensity process for its mission; such as barracks and administrative buildings. When the mission of the building requires high energy intensity such as in a dining facility; data center; etc.; this optimization process either will not end up with a net zero energy building; or large amounts of renewables will be added resulting in the overall technical solution that is not cost effective. However when buildings are clustered together; after each building is designed to its economic energy efficient option; the building cluster is also energy optimized taking advantages of the diversification between energy intensities; scheduling; and waste energy streams use. The optimized cluster will minimize the amount of renewables needed to make the building cluster net zero. This paper describes this process and demonstrates it using as an example a cluster of buildings at Fort Irwin; California.
Energy efficiency; Energy generation and distribution; Building cluster; Renewable energy source; Integrated optimization process
