Stanford University's Education in Sustainability
Part 1: Managers Generate Funding for Capital Projects
Part 2: Energy Retrofit Program Cuts Energy Costs
Part 3: University Hires Consultants for Energy Audits
Part 4: HVAC Retrofits Generate Significant Energy Savings
Part 5: Computer Science Building Poses Energy-Efficiency Challenges
Part 6: HVAC Recommissioning Targets Stanford's Largest Buildings
Energy Retrofit Program Cuts Energy Costs
By Chris Matt, Associate Editor - December 2008
Stanford’s energy-saving efforts became more formalized in 1993 with the creation of the Energy Retrofit Program. This program has invested more than $10 million in the last 15 years to improve energy efficiency through a range of technology upgrades, such as converting to T8 lamps and electronic ballasts and specifying variable-speed drives, light-emitting diode exit signs, and window film.
Stanford had been investing in similar measures during the 1980s before launching the Energy Retrofit Program, but with the addition of a co-generation plant, the university no longer was eligible for utility rebates, Gould says.
“We set up the Energy Retrofit Program basically to model the same sort of program that the utilities had that we were no longer eligible for,” he says. “We were still doing projects during that time. It just wasn’t in this formal tracking that we started with the Energy Retrofit Program.”
The Energy Retrofit Program has helped Stanford save more than 240 million kilowatt hours of electricity — about 15 months of the university’s electricity use — and prevented the equivalent of 72,000 metric tons of carbon-dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere. Looking to move beyond the Energy Retrofit Program, Stanford created its Capital Retrofits Program.
