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ENERGY PROJECT: Bear Creek Solar

23-August-2023

A 50-megawatt (MW) solar project in Richland County, Wisconsin, Bear Creek Solar will produce enough clean, low-cost energy to power approximately 13,000 homes. It is the second Alliant Energy project announced this year to receive an award, with the Wood County Solar Project earning Envision Platinum award in April.

The Bear Creek Solar Project is one of Alliant Energy’s 12 utility-scale solar projects in Wisconsin. In all, the company expects to add nearly 1,100 MW of solar generation in the state by mid-2024. It’s part of the company’s transition to a more diversified energy mix that includes adding more clean energy generation, as outlined in its Clean Energy Blueprint.

Soundbites:

“This Envision Platinum recognition from ISI supports our decision to transition to cleaner energy through projects like the Bear Creek Solar Project,” said Barbara Tormaschy, senior vice president of sustainability and regulatory strategy at Alliant Energy. “The sustainable development and construction of renewable projects allows us to create a healthier environment while providing the reliable energy our customers expect.

Read the full announcement here.

ENERGY PROJECT: West Campus Utility Plant

11-July-2017

The University of Washington’s West Campus Utility Plant in Seattle is the recent recipient of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) Envision Gold award. The Envision system rates sustainable infrastructure projects across the full range of environmental, social, and economic impacts.

The West Campus Utility Plant (WCUP) is a design-build project developed to expand central utility capacity for the University of Washington (UW). While the UW community is the primary user of the WCUP facility, the project team also worked with the local community to ensure the facility positively contributed to the broader university district, nearby neighborhoods, as well as the public. The project team also developed the utility plant project to align with several local infrastructure plans, including the UW Campus Master Plan, the West Campus Development Framework, and the U District Strategic Plan. Several organizations worked in close collaboration with UW to deliver the sustainable infrastructure project, including Mortenson Construction, Miller Hull, Arup, GGN, KPFF, and O’Brien and Company.

Conceived as an integral component of the broader community’s utility infrastructure, the WCUP project at UW was found to have commonalities with central utility plants that are more efficient, sustainable, and easier to operate, versus other types of utilities located within each of the campus’s many buildings. In this way, the WCUP has greatly improved infrastructure integration on campus.

Many stakeholders were consulted throughout the design of this project. Stakeholder feedback was sought, and concerns raised by stakeholders were explicitly addressed by the project team in the facility’s design, including visual impacts, noise and vibration, emissions, stormwater, and tree preservation.

“Recognizing that Envision was the most appropriate third-party rating system for our new West Campus Utility Plant, the University of Washington made the early decision to target Envision Silver verification. Through the collaborative efforts of everyone on our progressive design-build team, we actually surpassed our initial target and are thrilled to have received Envision Gold verification.  We understand that this is one of the first Envision verified projects for a higher education building in the United States and hope that our example inspires our other peer institutions to follow in our footsteps.”

– John Palewicz, Director of Major Capitol Projects, University of Washington

As a collaborative effort between ISI and the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, the Envision system rates the impact of sustainable infrastructure projects as a whole. The ISI Envision system measures sustainable infrastructure in five categories: Quality of Life, Leadership, Natural World, Resource Allocation, and Climate and Risk. These key areas contribute to the positive social, economic, and environmental impacts on a community.

Key sustainable accomplishments of the University of Washington’s West Campus Utility Plant include:

Leadership: The WCUP project team has demonstrated significant leadership in sustainable development by making public their sustainability commitments. For example, through the UW Sustainability Office, the Environmental Stewardship Committee, and the Campus Sustainability Fund, UW demonstrated clear and tangible commitments to the principles of sustainability. UW has implemented several sustainability policies, tracked a range of sustainability metrics campus-wide, funded student and faculty research in sustainability, and developed and implemented sustainable capital projects, such as the WCUP. All members of the project team have extensive experience designing and building sustainable infrastructure projects, and all key firms involved in this project make their sustainability commitments known through publicly accessible policies and annual sustainability reports.

The project delivery model, the Progressive Design-Build (PDB), used to deliver the WCUP was chosen as it fosters effective collaboration and teamwork between all members of the project team. The “design-build” aspect of the delivery method brought together the general contractor, architects and engineers. The “progressive” part of the model emphasized early design stage collaboration with the client (project owner) rather than a more traditional design-build model.

A key element of the PDB project delivery method for the WCUP was the early involvement of the constructor’s trade partners. Allowing trade partners (subcontractors) to make design suggestions based on their extensive knowledge of procurement, fabrication, and installation increased the efficiency of the project’s delivery.

Natural World: The WCUP incorporates measures to prevent pollutants from contaminating surface and groundwater, such as the redundant systems with sophisticated leak detection and monitoring. It is also equipped with a double-wall 30,000-gallon fuel oil storage tank and a fuel distribution system for the rooftop generators. This system is also equipped with a leak detector, and a transition sump design to contain potential fuel leaks. In addition, the project’s refrigerant monitoring system provides monitoring and automatic equipment shut down in the event of a refrigerant leak. During the design process, an abandoned underground oil storage tank was found on-site and all hazardous materials were abated and removed from the site to remediate existing and prevent future contamination.

Quality of Life: Prior to the WCUP project, the existing site was a parking lot with an under-used building, isolated foot path, overgrown vegetation, and an alley. The foot path was isolated from public view, attracting unwanted activities. The landscape design for the project improved these conditions, contributing to a more livable campus community. It improved access to existing amenities by repairing the pedestrian infrastructure and making it safer, enhancing the aesthetic character of the campus through the removal of overgrown vegetation, and creating an improved sense of safety and security by removing informal foot paths and adding lighting to the site.

A large polycarbonate screen wall was incorporated into the project’s design that serves to hide equipment from view, thereby improving the overall aesthetics of the building, and helping to maintain the character of the campus. This screen wall is also a unique campus landmark that will help orient pedestrians, and act as a distinctive “gateway” to the campus. Interactive LCD displays were incorporated at the pedestrian level of the WCUP to encourage participation in dynamic content and improve the overall appeal and character of the facility.

“The West Campus Utility Plant at the University of Washington is an excellent example of thinking differently about necessary infrastructure, such as a utility plant, and turning it into a more sustainable, aesthetically pleasing, and character enhancing project that benefits the community,” said ISI President and CEO John Stanton. “This project is testament to the University’s commitment to sustainability, and will serve the needs of the campus for decades to come. ISI is pleased to present this project with the Envision Gold award for sustainable infrastructure.”

To learn more about the West Campus Utility Plant, please visit http://millerhull.com/projects/#serve

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ENERGY PROJECT: Tucannon River Wind Farm

9-November-2015

Portland General Electric’s (NYSE: POR) Tucannon River Wind Farm project has received the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) Envision sustainable infrastructure rating system’s Gold award. Tucannon River Wind Farm is the first energy project to receive an ISI Envision-verified sustainable infrastructure award in North America.

“As the first energy project to be verified by the ISI Envision system in North America, the Tucannon River Wind Farm is exemplary in the Envision sustainable infrastructure rating categories, which includes quality of life, leadership, resource allocation, and natural world, as well as climate and risk.” said ISI President and CEO, William Bertera. “The Tucannon River team achieved highly rated infrastructure characteristics due to their commitment to the principles of sustainability.”

Located on 20,000 acres near Dayton, Washington, the 267-megawatt wind project is one of two large wind projects owned and operated by PGE. The project produces clean renewable energy that helps PGE meet Oregon’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, which requires the investor-owned utility to supply 15 percent of the electricity to its customers from qualified renewable resources by 2015 and 25 percent by 2025.

Construction of the Tucannon River project began in 2013, and the facility went into commercial operation on Dec. 15, 2014. The wind farm includes 116 turbines atop 80-meter tubular steel towers. Given the variability of wind power, the plant produces an average of around 101 MW – enough to power the homes of about 84,000 average residential customers.

“PGE is committed to providing safe, reliable electric service to our customers in an increasingly sustainable manner. This means working in partnership with our stakeholders to consider the impact of our long-term business decisions on people, the planet and our performance,” said Jim Piro, PGE president and CEO. “Earning the Envision Gold award for our Tucannon River Wind Farm – the first energy facility in the nation to win this distinction – is a testament to the dedication and commitment of the PGE employees and contractors who stepped up to meet this challenge successfully.”

During initial phases, the Tucannon River project team looked at ways of reducing net embodied energy and designed the turbine foundations to reduce the amount of concrete. A significant portion of the construction materials used in the project was sourced locally. This reduced transportation costs and helped boost the regional economy. All the material excavated during construction was retained and reused onsite, and most of the wind farm components can be recycled at the end of the project life.

“As the provider of engineering and technical consulting services on the project, Burns & McDonnell is proud to have initiated and helped facilitate PGE’s application that resulted in achievement of the ISI Envision Gold award,” said Robert Healy, Burns & McDonnell Regional Global Practice manager. “We believe this will raise awareness of sustainable practices that will carry over to future projects.”

ISI’s Envision rating system measures sustainable infrastructure projects through the measurement of five categories: Quality of Life (QL), Leadership (LD), Natural World (NW), Resource Allocation (RA), and Climate and Risk (CR). These contribute to overall credits for the positive social, economic, and environmental impacts in a community in the planning, design, and construction of infrastructure projects.The Envision categories in which the Tucannon River Wind Farm scored highest include:

Quality of Life (QL): The project offers many benefits to the community including full-time, family-wage jobs, and income for local businesses, as well as increased county tax revenue and easement payments to landowners. It also benefits the Oregon economy by helping PGE provide customers with clean, renewable power at a reasonable price.

Leadership (LD): In the Leadership category, PGE established plans and resources necessary for the long-term monitoring and maintenance of sustainable performance for the completed project. In addition, environmental monitoring plans are used during operations to manage and protect sensitive natural and cultural resources.

Resource Allocation (RA): Tucannon River Wind Farm will provide a net positive amount of energy to the grid during the next 20 years. This project’s infrastructure contributes more than 676,000 megawatt-hours of clean, renewable energy to the grid each year. By contributing renewable energy to the grid, Tucannon River helps decrease dependence on fossil fuel energy sources and increase national energy independence.

Natural World (NW): Tucannon River Wind Farm was sited to avoid all wetlands and surface water, floodplains, steep slopes, and other potentially fragile or hazardous terrain. The project was also designed and constructed to avoid surface waters and to avoid contamination of waters. The project team reduced the use of hazardous and/or potentially polluting materials as much as was possible.

Climate and Risk (CR): The sustainable elements include that the project reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 92 percent during its lifetime compared to a conventional power plant with the same capacity.

The Tucannon River Wind Farm team thoroughly assessed likely hazards and upgraded designs to prepare for direct and indirect impacts of short-term hazards. In addition to hardening the infrastructure and configuring its systems to be more resilient to man-made hazards, designs have been implemented to withstand floods, wildfires, and extreme temperatures and winds. Specific protections have been added to address lightning strikes, ice storms, and seismic events.

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