1. Procuring Renewable Electricity: Strategies for Addressing Barriers for Higher Education Institutions
U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership
Blaine Collison, Program Director, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Anthony Amato, ERG, support contractor to EPA
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
AASHE 2012 Conference
Los Angeles, California

2. Today’s Agenda Green Power 101 – What is it? How do you get it?
Current status of green power use within higher education
Barriers to green power procurement
Outside the box strategies and collaborative opportunities
Case studies – Santa Clara University & Luther College
Who are you? What do you want? What is stopping you? How do we get to implementation?

3. What is Green Power?
Electricity generated from natural resources that replenish themselves over short periods of time, including the sun, wind, moving water, organic plant and waste material (biomass), and the Earth’s heat (geothermal).
Biogas
Biomass
Geothermal
Small-Hydro
Solar
Wind

4. Green Power Procurement Options
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)
The environmental “attributes” of electricity generated from renewable resources (1 REC = 1 MWh)
Attributes are based on the generation technology type and age, geographic location, and time of generation
Does not include the underlying electrons – “unbundled”
a.k.a. Green Tags, Renewable Energy Credits
Green Power Electricity Products
“Bundled” product from utility or competitive energy supplier that includes both the RECs as well as the underlying electrons
On-site Generation
Install a renewable energy system on-site (e.g. solar panels, wind turbine)
Produces both electricity and RECs from the on-site source
Self-financed installation or via a third-party PPA
To claim “use” of green power, host needs REC ownership

5. Renewable Energy Certificates
Long-term REC contracts with credit-worthy counter parties can help finance new renewable projects

6. Value Proposition of Renewables for a College Campus
Meet environmental objectives
Sustainability goals
GHG reduction targets
American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment
Manage risk
Reduce exposure to fossil-fuel price volatility
Deploys quickly & scales up easily
Drive economic development
Higher ed commitments are financeable
Domestic energy supply
New U.S. jobs
Enhance school brand
Prospective students
Host communities
Peer institutions
Attract & retain students
Sustainability and green power is a hot topic on campus
Incorporate green power into research initiatives & curricula
Did you know…..
- 79% of colleges and universities have conducted a GHG inventory.
- 64% of colleges and universities have made a carbon reduction commitment.
Source: 2011 College Sustainability Report Card

7. Current Status: Green Power in Higher Education
EPA’s Green Power Partnership
123 College and University Partners
Green power use totaling nearly 2.2 billion kWh
Equates to ~5% of voluntary green power market
Emission avoidance equivalent to the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of 190,000 average American homes for one year
American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment
657 Signatories committed to becoming climate neutral
Purchased electricity currently constitutes ~40% of their GHG emissions
237 Schools committed to Tangible Action #5
Within one year of signing commitment, begin purchasing or producing at least 15% of institution's electricity consumption from renewable sources
GPP: 48 schools with on-site, 42 schools doing utility or marketing products, and 77 purchasing RECs. 1.89% of Green Power comes from on-site % comes from utility or marketing products % comes from the purchase of RECs.

8. Opportunities in Green Power Space for Higher Education Institutions
Unique Properties of Higher Education Institutions …..
Engaged stakeholders
Financial stability/credit-worthiness
Focus on longer timeframes
Large geographic footprint
Role in civic society
....Offer Unique Opportunities with Renewables
Large on-site renewable installations (owned or via PPA)
Utility-scale off-site projects
Collaborative purchasing
Student purchasing for dorm rooms
Development of new renewable technologies via research 8

9. GPP Intensifying Focus on College & Universities
Collaboration with Second Nature – the NGO behind the ACUPCC – to assist schools with overcoming barriers to renewable energy adoption
Webinar series focused on issues, barriers, and successes within higher education
New renewable energy resource sections on Second Nature and EPA websites (procurement guides, REC and PPA templates, etc)
If all ACUPCC Signatories switched to 100% green power, the total demand would be equal to over 40 billion kWh annually, which is equal to the:
current demand within the entire voluntary market in the US
electricity demand of over 3.5 million average American homes

10. Potential Roles of EPA & Second Nature
Group convener and facilitator
Build/Gauge consensus on preferred procurement strategy(ies) of school or group of schools
Match-maker
Assistance reviewing/developing RFIs/RFQs/RFPs
EPA network of resources
Example of best practices

11. Barriers to Renewable Energy Adoption
Green Power Purchase
Power/REC cost
Transaction cost
Unfamiliarity with procurement options
Comfort with REC concept
Perceived barriers
On-site Deployment
Up-front capital costs
Transaction cost
Limited site availability/quality
Outside of core competencies
System performance risks
Maintenance responsibilities

12. Additional Procurement Criteria and Potential Implications
Project specific
Geographic proximity
On-site, community-based, in-state, in-region
“Direct” additionality
Bundled product
Cost savings
Low risk
Community-scale
Cause-focused
Deal complexity
Resource limitation
Cost implications
Timing implications
Risk implications

13. What Procurement Strategies Can Help Schools Overcome Barriers?
Third-Party Financed Solar Power
Collaborative Purchases of On-site Renewable Systems
Utility-Scale Power Purchase Agreements
Power Purchase Agreements with Yet-to-be-Built Project
Green Power Buying Groups

14. Strategy #1: Third-party Financed Solar Power
Financial arrangement in which a third-party developer owns, operates, and maintains the PV system and host customer agrees to host the system on property and purchase the system’s electric output for a pre-determined period
Benefits
No up front capital cost
Potentially cash flow positive from day one
Predictable pricing
No system performance or operating risk
Visible/tangible commitment to renewable energy
Potential reduction in carbon footprint (if associated RECs are retained)
Challenges
Financial viability may be dependent on utility/state/federal incentives
Site lease may limit ability to make changes to property that would affect PV system performance or access to the system
Messaging without REC ownership
Not legal in four states

15. Strategy #2: Collaborative Purchase of On-site Systems
Regional group of schools collaborate on assessing individual onsite potential and make bulk purchase of on-site renewable energy systems (PV, wind)
Each school would install the renewable energy systems at their campus
Various financing options (direct purchase, PPA, equipment lease)
Benefits
Reduce the cost of PV systems through volume purchasing (10-15%)
Reduce vendor/installation costs through economies of scale and standardization
Reduce transactions costs and administrative effort (50%-75%)
Minimize workload for participants by using turnkey installations of solar systems
Stimulate creation of local clean tech jobs
Potential for hands-on student learning
Visible/tangible commitment to renewable energy
Challenges
Quality of resource (solar, wind)?
Level of state incentives/rebates?
Longer timeframe procurement process
Complexity
Possible ownership and maintenance responsibilities
Messaging without REC ownership
For more information see:

16. Strategy #3: Utility-scale Power Purchase Agreement
Direct off-take from specific renewable energy facility
Long-term power purchase agreement (10-25 years)
Purchase of bundled power and RECs
Recent Examples
Ohio State University
Iowa State University
Google
University of Pennsylvania (REC only)
Steelcase (REC only)
Benefits
Potential cost savings
Long-term predictable pricing
Clear association with specific renewable energy facility
Potential to get naming rights to wind farm or renewable energy facility
Challenges
Not legal in certain states
Change in risk profile
Investment grade credit required
Longer timeframe procurement process
Complexity
Performance risk

17. Strategy #4: PPA with Yet-to-be-built Renewable Project
Sign long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with renewable energy project developer
Long-term contract from large power off-taker is “bankable” and allows the project developer to more easily get financing from bank to build project
10-20 year PPA
EPA can assist with getting word out to project developers of interest in PPA
Pros
Direct additionality
Potential power costs savings
Electricity price stability
Stimulate creation of local/regional clean tech jobs
Visible/tangible commitment to renewable energy
Potential to get naming rights to wind farm or renewable energy facility
Cons
Not legal in certain states
Change in risk profile
Investment grade credit required
Level of state incentives/rebates?
Longer timeframe procurement process
Complexity
Performance risk

18. Strategy #5: Group Purchase of Bundled Green Power or RECs
Form purchasing aggregation to make bulk purchase of bundled green power or RECs, or lead institutions inserts rider in contract so other institutions can sign on at later date
RFP could be distributed to suppliers or work with energy auctioneer
Potential to work with suppliers to set up price reduction benchmarks based on total group kWh demand levels
Purchase contract can include stipulations on resource location (in-state or e-Grid region), type (wind, solar, etc), and contract length
Pros
Leverage buying power
With REC-only buy - no limitation on having to wait until contracts with current power providers end
With bundled buy – opportunity to reduce energy costs
Flexible structure that will allow new members to join group at any time, and existing members to leave at end of contract
Cons
Colleges already have buying power, so purchase group may only realize marginal price reductions
With REC-only buy - No opportunity to reduce cost of unbundled power

19. Santa Clara University
Solar power purchase agreement (PPA) with Perpetual Energy Systems
No upfront capital required
Purchase electricity at a predetermined, fixed rate
968 kilowatt solar energy system
Projected to generate 1.42 million kWh
Satisfies about 6% of the University's electrical energy needs.
More significantly, it will support about 20% of summer day time demand
Lindsey Cromwell Kalkbrenner
Santa Clara University’s Director of Sustainability

20. Luther College Luther’s Wind Turbine Community-Scale Wind
1.6 megawatt General Electric XLE wind turbine
Electricity from the turbine will serve Alliant Energy's customers on the west side of Decorah, including Luther College
5.2 million kWh of net electricity generated per year are enough to power more than 500 homes and represents approximately one third of Luther's annual consumption
Community-Scale Wind
Luther College has contracted to purchase the entire production of renewable energy certificates (RECs) from a community wind project, Windvision, LLC located in St. Ansgar, IA.
The turbine is projected to produce at least 2.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
Erika Kambs
Luther‘sEnergy and Waste Steward

21. Discussion Who are you? What are the barriers you have encountered?
How do we get to implementation?

22. Want to Know More? Basic Information More Questions?
An overview of Green Power Partnership is available on EPA’s Web site
To see EPA’s Top 20 College and University Partners, please visit:
To see EPA’s College & University Green Power Challenge, please visit:
More Questions?
Blaine Collison, EPA, ,
Anthony Amato, ERG, ,