Renewables Integration

Gundersen Health System constructed one of the nation's first LEED parking structures for a hospital, complete with PV panels. As of 2014, the system is one of the first to offset 100 percent of its energy use with renewable energy.

Recognizing the opportunity in solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, BJ’s installed nearly 20 PV systems throughout Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Jersey. These systems collectively produce 5.5 megawatts of power annually, allowing BJ's to reduce operating and energy costs so they can direct more resources to their core mission.

TownePlace Suites discovered an unused four-acre piece of land adjoining one of its properties, and developed the land with a solar installation, decreasing electric costs and improving the hotel’s environmental reputation.

The North Shore-LIJ Healthcare System installed a 50 kilowatt solar array on one of their auxiliary buildings, producing 55,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually, ensuring continuous energy cost savings and a cleaner energy resource.

Nixon Peabody made many energy efficiency renovations to their Washington, D.C. office and pursued LEED Platinum for Commercial Interiors. They also incorporated renewable energy as an integral component to achieve their goal of saving $800 a month on their energy bill.

WDT Indio retrofit its 40-year-old, 32,000 square foot building, installing a 138 kilowatt solar photovoltaic array to offest 80 percent of the building’s energy consumption, in hopes to achieve net zero energy.

The Tower Companies is committed to being an environmental leader in the real estate industry and installed its first solar photovoltaic (PV) system on a large, class A office building in Washington, D.C. The solar installation contributed to the sustainability profile of the property, which was already certified LEED Gold.

The Hampton Inn & Suites Bakersfield North- Airport operates in a hot climate and has high HVAC operating costs. To mitigate these costs, a carport solar array was installed, producing monthly savings of $8,800.

Madera Community Hospital completed the installation of a 1,140 kilowatt ground-mounted solar photovoltaic array through a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA). The array produces 2,183,220 kWh annually and offsets approximately 40% of the hospital’s electricity consumption.

Bardessono, a hotel in Yountville, California was designed to be one of the most energy efficient hotels in the world. A major roof-top solar array was included in the design to achieve significant energy savings and LEED Platinum certification. The PV system produces approximately one-half of the electricity used by the hotel.

This fact sheet provides an introduction to GHG emissions accounting for operation of buildings including equipment replacements and operational material purchases.

This factsheet from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory aims to describe how EV chargers can be connected to commercial buildings, including considerations for facility managers, and the effects that charging will have on the buildings electrical distribution system.

This resource highlights best practices in selecting a commercial solar provider. Business owners interested in going solar can take these steps to install an on-site solar photovoltaic (PV) system.

This fact sheet explains what grid-interactive efficient buildings are, why they are important to modernizing our power grid, and the benefits to building occupants and owners.

When a commercial building owner first considers installing solar PV, the first questions they ask typically involve how the system will be mounted to their roof and its impact on the roof warranty. This fact sheet addresses such common questions as identified by the Better Buildings Alliance’s Renewables Integration Team.

Assembling an effective team before a project begins can streamline the implementation of onsite renewable generation and storage systems and ensure that the design, installation, and operation of the systems are well aligned with the needs of the facility owner. To inform this process, this resource will identify common skillsets in renewable energy and storage projects, explore who can fill these skillsets, internally and externally, and will recognize additional project considerations to ensure cost-effectiveness, increased resiliency, and contribution to both electrification and decarbonization goals.

This presentation examines solar finance for residential and commercial customers and potential roles of state and local government.

This document provides guidance for implementing Solar PV in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

Use this template in conjunction with the Solar PV RFP & Procurement Guidance Template to develop a customized form for vendors to complete when responding to your Solar PV RFP.  

Use this template to develop your own Request For Proposal (RFP) document, which will effectively communicate the specifications of your desired PV solar project to vendors in your area.

This report provides guidance for businesses considering implementing solar PV, as there are widespread geographic differences regarding utility incentive structures, utility policies, regulatory structures, and permitting requirements.

Solar PV has the potential to provide significant benefits to hotels by way of attracting guests and, more importantly, reducing operating costs.

This document is intended to reduce project development and operational risks while increasing the speed at which projects are completed -- two necessary components to reach the scale required to meet mandates and achieve cost savings for taxpayers. This guide is intended to act as a living document where lessons learned from the increasing number of projects can be incorporated and provide guidance for efforts.

This guide is intended for anyone investigating the addition of energy storage to a single or multiple commercial buildings. 

Developed in partnership with Spark Northwest and the Center for Sustainable Energy, IREC’s guide outlines two potential pathways to enable greater solar access for renters and multifamily residents and LMI communities in Seattle.

At its Regency Saugus Center in Massachusetts, national retail center owner Regency Centers partnered with tenant Trader Joe's to install a 253 KW rooftop solar system. Regency Centers owns the solar array and sells the generated solar energy power to Trader Joe's at a discount, offsetting approximately 65% of their total electricity use with clean power.

This report summarizes current practices and opportunities to encourage robust and cost-effective assessments of demand flexibility performance and improve planning and implementation based on verified performance.

This report describes how current methods and practices that establish value to the electric utility system of investments in energy efficiency and other distributed energy resources (DERs) can be enhanced to determine the value of grid services provided by demand flexibility.

As the grid transforms, buildings are in a unique position to assist in the actualization of grid modernization goals. This DOE-sponsored report from the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership (NEEP) examines the trends around grid-interactive efficient buildings and grid modernization in the Northeast, Midwest, and Southwest regions of the U.S.

Connected Communities (CCs) are collections of buildings and distributed energy resources (DERs) that incorporate integrated energy management strategies at the multi-building scale. This report explores the many factors that influence the development and operation of CCs and evaluates their potential value.

This report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) reviews filings from 44 of the largest utilities in the country to identify and describe existing energy efficiency and demand response (EE/DR) programs, examines barriers to more prevalent EE/DR, and makes recommendations for overcoming them.

This paper from ACEEE examines the status of utility-run GEB programs in the U.S. It describes early examples of pilots and programs, discusses barriers to further adoption, and concludes with recommendations to help utilities and program administrators take advantage of the opportunity presented by GEBs.

This DOE-funded report from the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) provides a summary of the residential and small commercial grid-interactive building demand-side management (DSM) programs at the major utilities in the Southwest, highlighting existing programs in the region that are using GEBs as a resource to help with the integration of variable renewable generation and to provide other grid services that create value for customers.

This report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory describes existing operational GHG emissions accounting frameworks and identifies opportunities to make energy- and emissions-informed operational decisions.

The report explores the business case for grid-interactive, efficient buildings, including reduced carbon emissions and utility costs, sustained business operations, bolstered asset resilience, enhanced comfort for occupants, and maintained long-term asset value. 

This guide explores the benefits, barriers, and strategies to installing solar on leased buildings, including commercial real estate.

This report describes grid-interactive efficient buildings in the context of state and local government interests; highlights trends, challenges, and opportunities for demand flexibility; provides an overview of valuation and performance assessments for demand flexibility; and outlines actions that state and local governments can take, in concert with utilities, regional grid operators, and building owners, to advance demand flexibility.

This webinar highlighted examples of low-income renewable energy programs, including the Solar in Your Community Challenge and the Clean Energy for Low-Income Communities Accelerator, best practices, and discussed DOE’s National Community Solar Partnership.

Watch this 2020 Summit workshop to learn more about the solar project development process and hear insights from EPA's Green Power Partnership Program as well as partner case studies from Orlando, FL and the University of Virginia.

In this 2020 Summit session, industry experts discussed value streams and tools for evaluating DERs, while Better Building partners shared their successful experiences using DERs to reduce costs and keep operating when the grid goes down.

The Better Buildings Alliance Renewables Integration Team discussed building-to-grid integration in the context of COVID and how the pandemic is accelerating the transition to grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs).

This webinar provided an overview of a fact sheet published by the Renewables Integration Team: Connecting Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure to Commercial Buildings on how EV chargers can be connected to commercial buildings.

Watch this webinar to view the Better Buildings Renewables Integration Technology Research Team and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) discuss findings and recommendations on the strategic use of renewables, energy storage, and more in a multifamily building portfolio.

The Better Buildings Alliance Renewables Integration Team hosted an exciting conversation on building load flexibility and grid coordination.

The Better Buildings Alliance Renewables Integration Technology Research Team hosted an exciting webinar on electric vehicle (EV) charging and its impact on building energy demand. Presenters provided an overview of current EV charging technologies.

The Renewables Integration Technology Research Team hosted presenters who provided an overview of the publication Integrated Energy Efficiency and Demand Response Programs. In addition, attendees heard from Better Buildings partners who have engaged in efficiency and demand response programs.

The Better Buildings Alliance Renewables Integration Team focused this call on utility rate structures and incentive programs to encourage continuous demand management in commercial buildings.

This webinar introduced the DER technology options, described multiple value streams from these DERs, and presented a landscape of customer-sited DER solution providers.

This webinar focused on the strategic integration of DERs in commercial buildings. Join speakers from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Kaiser Permanente for a discussion of methods and best practices for integrating and optimizing the performance of renewables, thermal energy storage, and battery energy for load flexibility.