Nashville’s new convention center, already set to have a green roof, probably will have a solar one, too.
The Convention Center Authority has hired a local consulting firm to explore options for solar panels on top of the Music City Center, the $585 million building under construction downtown. An installation on the roof above the ballroom on the building’s north end would make the facility one of the most high-profile in Middle Tennessee to use the alternative energy source.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has a program that allows building owners that meet certain requirements to get credits for the electricity they generate through the sun’s energy and feed back into the power grid.
“The building is unique enough and obviously prominent enough that it can serve as an example to other property owners, as a testimonial to the long-term value of solar,” Mayor Karl Dean said Thursday. “I don’t want to do a project just to have panels up there. I want a real, tangible benefit for the city.”
The consulting firm, Energy Source Partners, will look at “small,” “medium” and “large” solar options for the convention center, including costs, energy savings, financing structures and maintenance. Ron Merville, the company’s president and CEO, said 50 kilowatts or less is considered small by TVA standards, while 200 or more is considered large.
Holly McCall, a spokeswoman for the convention center authority, said the Music City Center was designed to accommodate solar panels and they fit within the project’s budget, though a specific amount of money has not been set aside. While installing the panels would not lift the facility’s LEED certification above the silver level that is already expected, Dean said, it would add to the project’s energy efficiency.
McCall said Energy Source Partners, which opened for business in 2008, had the most experience of the six firms that applied for the job. Merville, a licensed professional engineer who has worked on some 500 public works projects for Metro, said his company’s solar projects have included the HCA headquarters near Centennial Park, a C.B. Ragland Co. building on Second Avenue South and a wastewater treatment plant under construction in Franklin.
Energy Source Partners also could do a Music City Center installation. Merville said the center, which is scheduled to open in about a year, is “a perfect site” for solar panels.
“Solar would help offset the electrical costs in the center — and do it with renewable energy,” he said.
The authority will pay Energy Source Partners $125 an hour, but the total payment can’t exceed $25,000, according to the contract. The firm is expected to deliver its report in 30 to 60 days.
A four-acre green roof is already being built atop the Music City Center. Dean said solar panels would make the undulating roof even more eye-catching.
“This roof is unlike any other roof that has ever been built in Nashville,” the mayor said. “The roof is visible from the interstates. We’ve been very conscious of the fact that the roof needs to be something special.”
2012年3月8日星期四
2011年5月5日星期四
County Solar Project Shines On
It is going to take a little longer for that sun garden atop the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office to blossom.
The county’s freeholders will give the contractor, EMSA Construction of Parlin, a 60- day extension of the $284,000 contract on Wednesday. The contract called for installing 182 solar panels on a new membrane roof on what used to be called the Courthouse Annex at 119 Hooper Avenue, before it was designated for use by the Prosecutor’s Office.
County officials turned on the rooftop sun garden yesterday, with William Santos, director of the Department of Buildings and Grounds, predicting an average savings on electricity of $14,000 a year and the creation of solar renewable energy credits worth $24,800 every year.
He said the sun-powered system will pay for itself in six years, but will keep generating power for a quarter of a century. Total energy savings are estimated at $772,000, according to Santos.
Because a new roof was involved, the weather played a part in when it could be installed. Work could not be done when it was too cold, or too wet. Now Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari said the county is awaiting approval by the state Board of Public Utilities and the lowal power company before the system can be switched on. He estimated that will take six weeks.
Vicari said solar panels have already been installed along a drainage basin at the county’s Southern Complex on Haywood Road in Manahawkin, providing power for the recycling center there.
Also in Manahawkin, Vicari said the new Southern Service Center will open May 11 at what once was St. Mary’s Parish Center at Routes 9 and 72. The county originally bought the building and site for a new Stafford branch of the Ocean County Library, but the recession shelved that conversion.
Instead it will be used to house offices for the surrogate, county clerk, and Office of Senior Services.
All the conversion work on the building was done by county workers, Vicari said. No overtime was paid.
Surrogate Jeffrey Moran said his office will do as many as 20 probates a day by appointment once the new building is open. Services for anyone living south of Lacey Road will be provided there, he said.
Clerk Scott Colabella said his branch office there will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays once the office opens.
The offices are being shifted from a smaller facility on Haywood Road in Manahawkin.
Colabella said the ease of access from major state highways and the Garden State Parkway, coupled with more parking will benefit the public at the new site.
The county’s freeholders will give the contractor, EMSA Construction of Parlin, a 60- day extension of the $284,000 contract on Wednesday. The contract called for installing 182 solar panels on a new membrane roof on what used to be called the Courthouse Annex at 119 Hooper Avenue, before it was designated for use by the Prosecutor’s Office.
County officials turned on the rooftop sun garden yesterday, with William Santos, director of the Department of Buildings and Grounds, predicting an average savings on electricity of $14,000 a year and the creation of solar renewable energy credits worth $24,800 every year.
He said the sun-powered system will pay for itself in six years, but will keep generating power for a quarter of a century. Total energy savings are estimated at $772,000, according to Santos.
Because a new roof was involved, the weather played a part in when it could be installed. Work could not be done when it was too cold, or too wet. Now Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari said the county is awaiting approval by the state Board of Public Utilities and the lowal power company before the system can be switched on. He estimated that will take six weeks.
Vicari said solar panels have already been installed along a drainage basin at the county’s Southern Complex on Haywood Road in Manahawkin, providing power for the recycling center there.
Also in Manahawkin, Vicari said the new Southern Service Center will open May 11 at what once was St. Mary’s Parish Center at Routes 9 and 72. The county originally bought the building and site for a new Stafford branch of the Ocean County Library, but the recession shelved that conversion.
Instead it will be used to house offices for the surrogate, county clerk, and Office of Senior Services.
All the conversion work on the building was done by county workers, Vicari said. No overtime was paid.
Surrogate Jeffrey Moran said his office will do as many as 20 probates a day by appointment once the new building is open. Services for anyone living south of Lacey Road will be provided there, he said.
Clerk Scott Colabella said his branch office there will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays once the office opens.
The offices are being shifted from a smaller facility on Haywood Road in Manahawkin.
Colabella said the ease of access from major state highways and the Garden State Parkway, coupled with more parking will benefit the public at the new site.
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