14 West Coast Buildings That Use No Energy Whatsoever
The New Buildings Institute just came out with a list of Verified Zero Energy Buildings, and California dominated the list, with 14 out of the 39 buildings. Here they are.
Location: Rohnert Park
Building Type: Education
Size: 2,200 SF
Cool Energy Feature: Passive solar heating and cooling, daylighting and advanced window systems.
Location: Los Angeles
Building Type: Recreation
Size: 3,500 SF
Cool Energy Feature: The building has a PV array on the roof that provides 100% of the facility's necessary electricity consumption.
Location: Woodside
Building Type: Education
Size: 13,200 SF
Cool Energy Feature: Due to the warm climate, the building’s largest energy load is cooling.
Location: East Los Angeles
Building Type: Conservation center
Size: 5,020 SF
Cool Energy Feature: It's the first in LA to be entirely powered by on-site solar systems, functioning entirely "off the grid."
Location: San Jose
Building Type: Office
Size: 6,557 SF
Cool Energy Feature: An integrated design approach focused on plug load reduction, plentiful daylighting and continuous energy metering.
Location: San Diego
Building Type: Office
Size: 4,500 SF
Cool Energy Feature: Passive and active strategies for power, water heating, lighting and ventilation are all utilized in the design of the buildings operations.
Location: Watsonville
Building Type: Office
Size: 16k SF
Cool Energy Feature: The HVAC system delivers thermal comfort and ventilation separately.
Location: San Diego
Building Type: Office
Size: 24k SF
Cool Energy Feature: This cutting-edge office building remodel was the first commercial building to achieve LEED NC v2.2 Platinum certification in San Diego.
Location: Vacaville
Building Type: Transportation
Size: 261,360 SF
Cool Energy Feature: Refractive glass windscreens, curving along the spine of each bench, produce warm glare-free illumination from hidden LED lights.
Location: Calabasas
Building Type: Lodging
Size: 3,500 SF
Cool Energy Feature: A grid-tied 35 killowat photovoltaic system provides 100% of the energy needs for the dorm each year, as well as surplus energy for a nearby maintenance office.
Location: Los Altos
Building Type: Office
Size: 49,161 SF
Cool Energy Feature: Crowned largest Net Zero Energy certified building in the world, the building has energy-, water- and resource-conserving characteristics.
Location: Atherton
Building type: Library
Size: 6,300 SF
Cool Energy Feature: In addition to a being a serene learning environment for students, the library is independent from fossil fuels and has reduced the campus’ resource usage.
Location: Berkeley
Building type: Library
Size: 9,300 SF
Cool Energy Feature: The first “net zero” energy library in the state, it has solar panels producing on average 500 kilowatts per hour more per month than the building uses.
