GOING GREEN
What is the library doing to reduce its carbon footprint?
- Our employees are paid to use public transportation.
- We offer flexible schedules so staff members can opt to work from home and reduce the impact of driving in.
- All our toilets are low-flush.
- The snow melt system is monitored 24/7 to use the least energy possible while keeping you safe.
- We recycle, and our staff does, too.
- Our thermostats kick back at night and come on just in time to make the building comfortable for you.
- Computer monitors are energy star rated.
- Our staff is converting to laptops, using half the energy of desktop computers.
- We’re choosing energy star rated appliances.
- We’re installing motion sensor lighting in public restrooms.
- We’ve installed blinds on our windows to keep the heat in at night.
- Our lighting is mostly fluorescent, using a fraction of the energy.
- All your fines are allocated toward green initiatives. Every penny.
SOLAR PROJECT
Library Advocates Sustainability Despite Cost.
Article Courtesy of the Telluride Watch Newspaper
TELLUIRDE – The Wilkinson Public Library has been generating knowledge since the 1960s. Now it’s generating power too.
Climb onto the roof of the Pacific Avenue building and library patrons can see Wilkinson’s new system of solar panels that was completed last week. The solar panels are a significant investment for the library and while it may be a while before they actually save a significant amount of money, library staff say the new system is justified because of its impact – or lack thereof – on the environment.
The 45 panels, or modules, which is their technical term, comprise a 10-kilowatt, photovoltaic, grid-tied system that now sets in three rows on the south side of the Wilkinson roof. The panels are expected to generate 50-kilowatt hours per day. According to maintenance supervisor Dan Wilson, the library currently pays about 25 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity. With the help of the solar panels, Wilkinson will save at least $3,000 per year.
But the new system is only supplying 6 percent of the library’s electricity. And since the panels were a $67,000 investment, it will take about 20 years for the new system to pay for itself. Wilson said that timeframe does not take into account the notion that energy prices are increasing or that fossil-fueled power companies may see bill-rising penalties in the future. He added that the economic incentive for installing the solar panels is not a strong one. Rather, the library is investing in solar power because it’s the right thing to do.
“Being the library and an educational institution we’re working toward educating people on the process and what we can do to make a difference,” he said.
One of the system’s features is a web-based monitoring system, the Enphase Envoy Communications Gateway, that gathers performance information from each module and displays the statistics online. This can be a useful troubleshooting tool. For example, if there is something, like snow, blocking a panel and decreasing its output, the customer will know immediately. Wilkinson will also be using the monitoring system as an educational feature. A kiosk in the library will display up-to-the-minute, solar panel statistics, including how many light bulbs could be powered by the modules or how many trees would have to be planted to equal the panels’ carbon offset.
“[The monitoring system] has great graphics for education purposes,” Wilson said adding that the new system should offset 4,825 pounds of coal and 34,735 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year. One kilowatt ho ur of electricity produces about two pounds of carbon dioxide.
The library plans to put together informational resources for Telluride residences and businesses that are interested in going solar. Though Wilkinson is not the first commercial building in town to add solar panels – Colorado Ave.‘s Jagged Edge added 14 panels in 2007 – it is certainly the first of its size.
The design and installation of the solar panels was done by Alternative Power Enterprises, a 17-year-old, Ridgeway-based company started by longtime off-the-grid resident Leif Juell. This is the second-largest system Juell has engineered, the largest being a 10.5-kilowatt home in Montrose.
Like all their systems, Alternative Power Enterprises’ design for the library was specific to its needs. To avoid drilling leak-causing, book-damaging holes in the roof, the panels are held down with the weight of ballast bans and concrete blocks. The system’s placement on the south side of the building minimizes visibility from the street. Steel rails drilled into the roofs’ side walls support the array about two feet off of the floor; that, along with the panels’ positioning, makes it possible to shovel snow around the system during the winter.
Behind each module is a microinverter, which converts alternating current power to direct current. If something like shade or snow covered one part of a panel, the entire module would not work, using a microinverter maximizes efficiency by allowing the rest of the panel to produce power, even if one section of it is covered.
Juell agreed that the environmental motivation for installing the solar system is greater than the economic one.
“It’s an investment,” Juell said. “There is a payback point, but it’s really about doing the right thing.”
The library is paying for the investment with their Green Fund; all revenue from donations and overdue library books go into t hat account, which paid for initiatives like Wilkinson’s water-saving toilets.
The idea to add solar panels to the roof was brought to the Library’s Board of Trustees by Wilson, network administrator Joe Huff and materials management supervisor Oak Smith. Last fall, the board unanimously approved a $100,000 proposal to install the modules. Despite the difficult economy, Smith said the library believes its significant investment is justified because of its sustainability.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Smith said. “How can you justify not doing this?”
In March, the library started putting out bids for licensed companies to engineer the solar system. That lowered the price with Alternative Power Enterprises’ $82,531 offer. A $15,000 rebate from the Governor’s Energy Office – procured through the New Community Coalition – lowered the cost to its final, $67,531 price tag.
The town residents seem to have responded well to the new panels. Juell said that he has already received numerous calls from Telluriders interested in adding renewable energy systems. The town and the Historic & Architectural Review Commission waive their building permit fees and application fees, respectively, for renewable energy projects. Both Juell and Wilson agree that Telluride has been very positive towards the new system.
Mayor Stu Fraser said that Telluride does not currently have some type of plan in the works to encourage town-wide solar power. That investment will be done on a business-by-business bases, but Fraser added that he thinks the library’s work a valuable step.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Fraser said. “We need to see more and more of that occurring within the town.”
Kris Holstrom, executive director of the New Community Coalition, agreed.
“Isn’t it cool? I think it’s a really neat thing to happen to our community,” she said. “To have th em step up to the plate to put in solar is just fantastic.”
Now that Wilkinson has made the initial investment, upkeep costs over the years should be minimal because the library will already have the necessary infrastructure. Wilson says the current modules are guaranteed to last 25 years, but that they will probably be around even longer