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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSewardCityNews December 2014City acts on potential geothermal heat for city buildings December 12, 2014 11:34 am·Views: 415 Seward Library Museum, located two blocks from the Seward Waterfront, is considered a prime candidate for conversion to geothermal heat. SCN file photo. By Heidi Zemach for SCN – The Seward City Council took an important first step toward implementing renewable energy in Seward at the last meeting of the year Monday night. They authorized City Manager Jim Hunt to negotiate a $48,000 contract with Your Clean Energy, LLC, to develop an economic evaluation for heating the Seward Museum Library and City Annex (former Seward Library) buildings with geothermal energy. If actually constructed, the district heating loop project would replace the oil boiler systems in those buildings with a geothermal loop system leading from underground boreholes drilled on city land near the edge of the Seward waterfront. City frontage along Resurrection Bay, below Adams Street, which is currently used mainly for recreation and camping during the tourist season lie above water-saturated deep alluvial deposits that are believed to have strong potential for installing vertical ground loop fields. Vertical ground loops, up to 300 foot deep, may be warmed by the ground and ocean heat from the bay, without the challenges of directly pumping sea water, said Andy Baker, Your Clean Energy’s owner and project manager. At the council meeting, administrators assured the public that people using the waterfront would barely notice a physical difference. Andy Baker, owner of YourCleanEnergy, addresses t he Ports and Harbor Advisory Committee May 21, 2014. Heidi Zemach photo. Baker has already had experience bringing renewable energy to another significant Seward-owned waterfront building. He helped Darryl Schafermeyer design and implement the Alaska SeaLife Center’s unique seawater heat pump system which has replaced the costly, less inefficient boiler heating system. ASLC has been operating at about half its normal cost of oil or straight electric heat, and has greatly lowered its carbon footprint. After the proven success of that experiment, Baker attended some public hearings in Seward last Spring to discuss implementing a seawater heat pump district for other buildings in the downtown area. Without yet receiving large private enterprise buy-in locally, the concept went no further until Seward’s Port and Commerce Advisory Board, tasked with recommending a plan, suggested four city buildings for a potential starter district including City Hall and the Fire Station. The Seward Community Library Museum is considered the most appropriate building for conversion to geothermal heat because of its new construction, its high level of insulation, radiant floors and modern hydronic system, Baker said. The library museum building committee had also considered using renewable energy, such as geothermal for the new library, but had not explored those options in depth, fearing it would delay the building’s construction. Since the former library adjacent became the “City Annex” building, it has had some recent energy-efficiency upgrades that could make a conversion to a heat pump system cost effective, Baker said. City Hall and the Fire Station aren’t as good candidates for conversion as they are older multi-use buildings that will require comprehensive energy audits and fundamental efficiency improvements before the switch to the pump system would be cost-effective, he said. They could be hooked into the starter district in the future, though. The project also will identify adjacent waterfront locations where additional borehole fields could be established. The project will begin soon, and will move forward in early 2015. Within two weeks of its Notice to Proceed, the city would be required to install a fuel meter (measuring gallons consumed) on each operating oil boiler, and a KWH meter on the electric boiler in the library museum. Heat load estimates can then be calibrated against actual fuel usage recorded over the winter. An evaluation of the buildings’ existing heating systems and conceptual design of a ground source borehole field would be completed, followed by an economic evaluation of the starter heating district. A potential future candidate, but only when its efficiency is greatly improved. Heidi Zemach photo. While initial funding comes from the City’s General Fund Reserves, the plan and economic evaluation will demonstrate the potential benefits and energy savings of establishing district heating in those particular Seward buildings that can be leveraged as a basis for the city’s efforts to obtain federal or state grant funding. There are multiple state and federal grants available for these types of green, energy-saving projects. The City Council and Administration also debated various forms of LED lighting options to purchase for Seward’s downtown historic district. The five-bulb decorative globe lights, installed because they lent a historic look to downtown, are not energy-efficient, and are extremely costly to operate, maintain or replace. About 24 of the decorative bulbs along Third Avenue are out, or their heavy ballasts need to be maintained or replaced. But rather than doing so, the council and city would prefer to begin replacing them with more efficient LED lights, which can be used without individual ballasts, and at significant energy savings to the city. After a heated discussion, the issue was put on hold, however. A variety of complications to the plan have arisen that may take time and further debate.