Introduction to Integrating Renewable Energy into Federal Construction

The introduction to this guide outlines key topics that led to the development of the Guide to Integrating Renewable Energy into Federal Construction. It discusses:

Benefits of Renewable Energy Use: Renewable energy technologies have wide ranging benefits, including economic development and job creation, national security, price stability and environmental improvement.
Meeting Federal Renewable Energy Requirements: A range of legislation and executive orders have stipulated wide-ranging renewable energy requirements and goals that apply to new construction and major renovation projects. Currently, for example, all Federal agencies are required to meet a portion of their energy needs with renewable energy. Integration of renewables into these projects can help agencies comply with all the requirements.
Leading By Example: The Federal government is the nation's largest energy consumer. Operating more than 500,000 facilities comprising of more than 3 billion square feet, the government spends approximately $7 billion annually on energy for these facilities. As such, the Federal government has a tremendous opportunity and clear responsibility to lead by example in adopting sustainable practices to help transform the market. The Buildings Energy Data Book outlines energy use across the Federal sector.
Whole Building Project Approach: The principles of a whole-building design approach are incorporated throughout this guide, including communication between disciplines and integrated design. All systems within a building are viewed as interrelated. In the same way, renewable energy should be viewed as a secondary technology to energy efficiency. The first approach to energy should be to reduce energy use where possible followed by looking for opportunities to produce the remaining energy needed with renewable energy technologies.
Renewable Energy Certificates: Renewable energy can be sold as two distinct products: the actual energy produced from a renewable energy project and the "renewable energy certificate" (REC) which puts a value on the environmental benefits, such as reduced emissions, from the project. To meet Federal renewable energy requirements, agencies can purchase RECs through the market or they can keep or trade RECs associated with an on-site renewable energy project.
Technology Resources: To complement the guide, resource pages were specifically developed for each qualifying renewable energy technology. These technology resource pages contain specific details on each renewable energy technology, including design, cost, life-cycle, and other key issues.