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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 10/07/2013 1 South Burlington Energy Committee Meeting Minutes Members Present Absent Marc Companion  Don Cummings  Keith Epstein  Fred Kosnitsky  Karen McKenny  Marcy Murray  Sam Swanson  Brendan Taylor  Peter Tousley  Laura Waters  Date: October 7, 2013 Meeting Location: City Hall City Staff: Ilona Blanchard Members of the Public: Kyle Ahearn, Andrew Gill, Carrie McLaughlin, Tim Perrin Start Time: 7 p.m. We welcomed new SBEC members Fred Kosnitsky & Brendan Taylor. Motion: To adopt the September 2013 minutes Moved by: Don Seconded by: Keith Approved unanimously Sam agreed to monitor time and Marcy agreed to take notes. City Staff Update: • The city has reached a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the Claire Solar Array. The city had four key desires: o A higher berm o The relocation of some trackers away from a key part of the wildlife corridor o Assurance that there would not be any fences around the array o The identification of parameters which would enable the city and the developer to move forward in developing additional recreational space on or near the array The Public Service Board’s hearing officer will make a decision soon. • The city must adopt a new comprehensive plan before it can change any zoning ordinances. The new plan will be consulted during law creation, grant 2 application, and Act 250 processes. Staff is working to consolidate strategies that were proposed before Interim Zoning began. Motion: To have a special meeting on October 21st at 7 p.m. (perhaps with city staff present) to work on finalizing our recommendations for the Comprehensive Plan. Moved by: Don Seconded by: Marc Approved unanimously It was suggested that at the October 21st meeting we consider—in addition to other items—adding a benchmarking project using Portfolio Manager and/or ICLEI’s or some other tool, and creating a strategy requiring energy assessments of all new residential and commercial building bids. Tim Perrin of the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation’s Efficiency Vermont spoke about benchmarking (a way to measure and track energy use in some type of normalized format over time) and energy-related form-based code issues. Benchmarking. The free Energy Star benchmarking tool provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is called Portfolio Manager. Energy-related data can be manually entered for a given site and then compared to other buildings of similar types in various weather-corrected geographical locations. There are 20 commercial /municipal building types; the data required includes energy usage history, footprint information, square footage, usage, etc.; and the tool uses BTUs per square foot on an annual basis. If a site performs within the top 25% of all buildings in its building type nationwide, it can earn an Energy Star designation. (Because of the federal government shutdown, we were unable to see a live demonstration of the tool.) Tim plans to provide a list of communities that are using this tool and notes regarding how they are using it. If we were to use the tool, Efficiency Vermont could provide technical support during setup. While this tool couldn’t help us track the whole city’s energy usage, it could be used to benchmark municipal operations (plus, if the latter demonstrated the usefulness of the tool, we could invite commercial entities to use it). If adopted, we could explore whether UVM or SBHS students would like to help with data entry and subsequent analyses. A different EPA tool is available for residential benchmarking. Form-based code (FBC) issues. Tim pointed out that the form-based codes being considered by the FBC Committee appear primarily to involve aesthetic features and character. With the exception of glazing requirements, the codes (and the building- envelope standards in particular) do not appear to include references to components of the state energy code. 3 Given that future development within the city will need to fulfill the requirements of the state energy code (not currently enforced by South Burlington), instead of working to add additional energy-related requirements to the form-based codes, the city may want to consider adopting a stretch energy code which would be more aggressive than the state codes and would increase in strength over time. Glazing parameters should be addressed in the FBC by indicating which code (FBC or state/city energy code) will take precedence when a conflict between the two arises. After Don mentioned that landscaping, porches, and awnings can negatively affect passive energy results; Tim responded that because the latter were site-specific, it would be difficult to incorporate them into the FBC. A related position could perhaps be “encouraged” in the language of the FBC. Andrew suggested that fee waivers be considered for developers/builders who adopt energy-efficient measures and use 3rd-party verifiers. At the FBC meeting on Thursday, Tim will present some economic benefit and technical information, and we hope to identify a process for moving forward. Don mentioned that the city needs an overarching vision of how to build in the city—a vision that addresses both looks AND performance. Marc emphasized the need for energy-code-related enforcement during construction (before performance-related elements become hidden by materials)—if this is outside the FBC, perhaps language encouraging such action can be added to the FBC. Keith pointed out that perhaps a solar- ready roof requirement (in terms of roof strength and HVAC location) could be incorporated into the FBC. Motion: To accept the Form-based Code Committee’s invitation to its October 10th meeting. Moved by: Fred Seconded by: Laura Approved unanimously Energy Action Network. Sam has joined this organization and is impressed with its work. It currently has four working groups, one of which is focusing on developing a dashboard for Montpelier that will ideally give community members a visible way to see their energy-related progress. (Montpelier has embraced becoming a net-zero state capital.) Carrie McLaughlin has been involved in the Montpelier work and shared that the dashboard focuses on electricity, thermal, and transportation energy usage. The group wants individuals to enter their own energy data to see how their actions can move the dashboard dial. Keith mentioned that Opower offers a similar tool that differs in that it sends aggregate information to citizens. 4 Home Energy Challenge. Karen, Keith, and Laura distributed weatherization pamphlets to four neighborhoods. Four people attended the three button-up open house events. Monthly article in The Other Paper. Fred’s article will appear in the paper soon, and he is willing to write a monthly column to help motivate citizens to take positive energy- related action. Georgetown University Energy Prize (GUEP). Keith and Don have been laying the groundwork by gathering partners with the goal of ultimately galvanizing the whole city into doing something dramatic energy-wise. The two-year competition will focus on reducing residential and commercial electricity and natural gas usage, will provide $50,000 to $100,000 in seed money for those selected to participate, and will award the overall winner in energy efficiency with $5,000,000. The objectives of the competition are to: • Foster innovative approaches to energy efficiency • Educate the public and engage students in energy issues • Grow markets for products & services that facilitate energy efficiency Keith and Don are considering an Opower-type idea, among others, and will soon meet with Interim City Manager Kevin Dorn in preparation for his meeting with Vermont Gas. The letter of intent is due by the end of the year (and will need City Council approval & a refundable $500). Regardless of the monetary prize we may win, at a minimum this effort promises to build awareness and good relationships within the community. For more details, visit: http://www.guep.org/ Autumn Festival. Keith and Karen represented SBEC (under our new banner). Keith will contact people who shared email addresses at the festival and at the summer farmers market to see whether they would like to be added to our mailing list. Motion: That we use up to $500 from our budget to support participation of interested city councilors, Planning Commission members, or non-SBEC city-committee members in the upcoming Renewable Energy Vermont (REV) conference. Keith would facilitate this process and any leftover funds would be available for SBEC members’ attendance. Moved by: Sam Seconded by: Marc Approved unanimously Motion: To adjourn Moved by: Don Seconded by: Keith Time: 9:00 p.m. Next meeting: October 21st at 7 p.m.