Expensive energy savings promised at new City Hall falling short

Expensive energy savings promised at new City Hall falling short

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

When Key West was awarded the LEED Platinum energy conservation certification in November 2018 for the design of the renovated City Hall, it was cause for celebration, earning the highest LEED ranking among only three city halls in the United States that have earned the coveted platinum award.

But, as the city’s former energy manager reported recently, it may have been a little too soon to pop the champagne cork. Promised savings from both the solar panel array installed in the City Hall parking lot and the in-ground water conservation cistern system are coming in well below expectations.

Terrence Justice, recently named the Key West Chief Building Official, had been the city’s energy manager since 2017. He made the energy manager’s annual report to city commissioners at their Oct. 16 meeting and had some startling – and dismaying – information. First, the two solar panel arrays in the parking lot that were supposed to provide 100 percent of the electric requirements of the new City Hall, saving approximately $6,000 a month in Keys Energy bills, are only producing 10 kilowatt hours per month, reducing the monthly bill by about $1,100, Justice said. 

“On average they provide 20 percent of the power that’s consumed in this facility on a day to day basis,” he said, standing at the podium in City Hall.

The two arrays cost approximately $686,000 to build but that cost was reduced by a $240,000 contribution from Keys Energy. They were supposed to pay for themselves in about 20 years by reducing electricity bills. If the 10-kilowatt hour production cannot be increased, it will take closer to 50 years to pay off the investment. When city commissioners inquired about boosting that output by installing a third solar panel array at City Hall, Justice was not encouraging.

“Given that it would increase our savings on the solar to the tune of $500, $600 a month, the simple payback investment looks something along the lines of 52, 53 years; not very supportable from a financial standpoint,” he said.

Justice pointed out that in pursuing a LEED Platinum Certification, the highest possible, the city paid for what he called the “Rolls Royce” of expensive solar panels. In addition, by choosing to install them at a tilt, which optimizes the solar collection but requires an expensive steel support system instead of a flat installation on the existing City Hall roof, the city paid considerably more than it had to in order to get solar energy benefits.

“The difference between that [tilt structure], which is a more expensive-type installation, and laying them flat on the roof is about four percent annually in [energy] production. It’s insignificant for the increased cost to do it the way we did,” Justice said.

Three city commissioners had argued in August 2016 against installing the second solar array in the parking lot. Commissioners Margaret Romero, Richard Payne and Billy Wardlow asked why the second array couldn’t be installed on the roof of City Hall so as to be out of sight. Several residents in the neighborhood had complained about the tilted array structure, resembling a carport, in the back part of the City Hall parking lot. But they were told by then-City Manager Jim Scholl and project architect Bert Bender of Bender & Associates Architects that it would cost between $800,000 and $1 million to change the location to the roof.

At last week’s meeting, commissioners were still interested in exploring the use of solar power on city-owned buildings, including the recently-purchased former Citizens newspaper building and the new transit building on Stock Island. They directed the new energy manager, Johnnie Yongue, to research the issue and get back to them.

“At least to have that option so we could sit here and actually have a discussion about it,” recommended Mayor Teri Johnston.

“I would suggest that you would be paying 10 cents on the dollar against what we paid for the support structures out here,” Justice said, comparing the cost of an “off-the-shelf” solar panel array mounted on a roof versus the top-of-the-line tilted option installed at City Hall. “So instead of a 50-something year payback, you’d be looking at 18 to 20 years, would be my guess.”

The bad energy news continued to mount when Justice reported on the water cistern tank system installed in the $19 million City Hall renovation project. The design did not account for the fact that the top half of the cistern tanks are above ground and the piping system connected to them cannot fill the tanks above ground level, Justice said. 

“So, we have a capacity in the cisterns of about 22,000 gallons rather than the initially reported 44,000 gallons,” he said.

City Manager Greg Veliz said that he had spoken to a plumber last week asking for a plan to get the cistern up to full capacity. He said the lower water level became a problem during Hurricane Irma, when several city officials were staying in City Hall to manage emergency operations.

“During the storm we ran into a problem here when we were all staying here, that there wasn’t any water,” he remembered, adding that he wanted the cistern to back-feed the bathrooms in City Hall to ensure water flow during a power outage.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. To achieve LEED Platinum status requires a minimum of 80 points on the LEED energy conservation check list. Between 60 and 79 points is required for Gold certification, while Silver certification requires 50 points. 

Achieving Platinum status was a goal several city officials believed was important. Called the “showcase of sustainability” by the U.S. Green Building Council and Green Business Certification, Inc., which issues the designation, a press release put out by the city when the award was announced said it means environmental sustainability “as well as cost savings to the taxpayers through energy efficiency.”

“LEED Platinum was a great accomplishment on our part and I think it sent a message to the rest of the country,” said Veliz. “But there are lower levels of LEED certification that we might be able to attain.”

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