Self-Sustaining Buildings Resilience – Lethality – Innovation Energy Summit 2019 - Huntsville, Alabama Richard Gilles, REM Fort Devens RFTA Sain Engineering Associates Welcome I'm Rick Gilles – REM at Fort Devens RFTA This quick talk is about Why self sustaining buildings are a good idea and how to go about creating one. Directorate of Public Works USAG Fort Devens RFTA

Resilience – Lethality – Innovation National Defense Strategy - 2018 Net Zero Cash flow Lower Resource Demand Lower Environmental Impact Long Life Cycle Components Resilient Innovative Technology LCCA – Long Lasting - Reliable Model Design Concept The Living Building ™ Creating Self Sustaining Buildings fits nicely into the 2018 National Defense Strategy. By reducing operating costs and extending the life of buildings more dollars are potentially available for Soldier Readiness Training and Lethality. The Living Building concept provides a comprehensive framework to create a self-sustaining building - but there a many possible paths. Bottom line - self-sustaining buildings have potential to reduce the operating burden for the DoD built environment. Thus, more resources could be available for soldier readiness training and overall lethality. Self-Sustaining Buildings Operating Costs ∝ $ for Soldiers

Process Execute Project Fund Project Determine Evaluate Project Investment Grade Audit (UESC) Select Contracting Officer Develop Public Private Partnerships (if applicable) Determine Objectives Approach Team Funding Path Project Program Evaluate Project Existing Conditions Building Site Energy -[Big radiator] Water Regulations [UFC] Legal Political Command Intentions White Paper Study Execute Project Contract Project Build project The process to create a self sustaining building looked something like this: . Determine – Evaluate – Fund – Execute This should not be much different from what you do today for any project. Key elements for us to develop the concept for the Barnes Building as a living building were: Objectives Approach Team Funding Path Project Program Command intentions turned out to be pretty important as we learned later in our project development process. Control of the Barnes Building in Boston shifted out of our watch at the point we met the requirements for an investment grade audit. So we did not execute.

The Living Building™ International Living Future Institute We chose to use the Living Building as a model design concept because it is fairly comprehensive in addressing the various factors leading to a self-sufficient building. It is a program founded in design - and uses language that comes from the design community. So somewhat flowery. It also is not completely compatible with DoD Force Protection requirements. For instance, Windows. These are the 20 criteria we used on the Barnes Building Project base on original work by architect Bruce Coldham. We found that we could meet most of the criteria to some degree. More importantly we found the framework of thinking the criteria through very helpful in understanding the scope of our proposed project. International Living Future Institute https://living-future.org

Funding path chart developed by This is a decision tree for determining funding path that I help Pacific Northwest National Labs create. Selecting a funding path is critical to how you go about developing your project. We chose a UESC in combination with another vehicle such as a PPA so that we could use other peoples money. Funding path chart developed by PNNL 2018

Our utility Eversource was very motivated to do this project and they brought on Ameresco to be the ESCO in support of the preliminary evaluation of the project. When powering a self-sustaining building the scale of the project will also have a big impact on how you execute. In our case the 600,000 sqft Barnes Building had acres of parking and roof top to site solar as well as room inside to house a fuel cell. There is also enough power to merit an internal microgrid – as much as 14 MW. Because we chose the UESC as a funding path we were limited to generating 80% of the building demand to avoid creating FERC law compliance issue. By bringing on a 3rd party investor via a PPA or other agreement it became possible to shift the compliance requirements to this operator and potentially generate an excess of power.

Innovative Technology – That’s Proven Images from Living Machine™ Website For a building to be self-sufficient you must address water supply and waste water, power supply, heating and cooling as well as the building itself. Additionally you need to consider the surrounding buildings and adjacent communities. In the case of any DoD project Force Protection has to trump any agenda you may think you have. In our case we determined that we would combine a comprehensive mechanical, HVAC, Electrical, and building skin renovation to get to our goals. To accomplish this we planned to use a living system to treat and recycle our waste and water, a fuel cell, and a microgrid among other technologies. We learned that new technologies may sound good but it is very important to study the claims made and study their efficacy before you commit to using them. Fuel Cell (Northeast Electrochemical Energy Storage Cluster, March, 2018   Fuel Cell [ExtremeTech]  

Micro-Grids & Resilient Nodes1 Power Grid Network Graph Power Source Resilient Node1 The value of creating a self-sustaining building: Aside from reducing resource use and operating costs, a self sustaining building adds resiliency to the microgrid to which it is attached. A microgrid composed of self-sustaining buildings is even more resilient Also, large buildings – like the Barnes Building may incorporate microgrids making them even more resilient This is a network graph representing the power grid. Each self-sustaining building and microgrid are resilient nodes within the power network. As you add more resilient nodes within the network the overall power grid becomes more resilient. Self-Sustaining Building Microgrid System (Power Analytics, Inc, August, 2016)   Source: Pixabay Micro-Grid 1-”Morrissey Channel Project - Financial Implications of Planning for Resiliency and Sustainability in the Redesign of Columbia Point”, White Paper, Gilles, 2015  

Incorporating Resilient Technology for Energy and Water Using The Living Building ™ Framework We developed a viable approach to converting the Barnes Building from a resource and financial burden to a self sufficient asset by Incorporating Resilient Technology for Energy and Water Using the Living Building ™ Framework

Barnes Building as Living Building™ UESC And by using the UESC plus a third party investor we made it plausible to do this with other peoples money.

Thank you! Contact Information: Richard Gilles REM, Fort Devens RFTA Sain Engineering Associates Office 978-615-6099 Email: Richard.D.Gilles.CTR@mail.mil Directorate of Public Works USAG Fort Devens RFTA

Barnes Building as a Living Building Concept Plans

Barnes Building as a Living Building Concept Plans

Barnes Building as a Living Building Concept Plans

Barnes Building as a Living Building Concept Plans