Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 60.54
Liaison Sarah Fortner
Submission Date March 6, 2020
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Carleton College
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.53 / 4.00 Martha Larson
Manager of Campus Energy and Sustainbility
Facilities
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total energy consumption (all sources, excluding transportation fuels), performance year :
205,167 MMBtu

Option 1 

Total clean and renewable electricity generated on site during the performance year and for which the institution retains or has retired the associated environmental attributes:
11,973 MMBtu

None
A brief description of on-site renewable electricity generating devices :
Carleton's second wind turbine, a General Electric XLE 1.6 MW turbine, was installed in the Fall of 2011 and provides electricity directly to Carleton's electric grid. Carleton also has a 9 kW solar PV array which produces an annual average of 10 MWh per year. The number was lower in FY17 due to maintenance.

Option 2 

Non-electric renewable energy generated on-site, performance year:
0 MMBtu

None
A brief description of on-site renewable non-electric energy devices:
Carleton has a solar panel array on its Cassat-James residence Hall which provides solar thermal heating for domestic hot water. We do not currently have the ability to measure cumulative btu production.

Option 3 

Total clean and renewable electricity generated by off-site projects that the institution catalyzed and for which the institution retains or has retired the associated environmental attributes, performance year:
0 MMBtu

None
A brief description of off-site, institution-catalyzed, renewable electricity generating devices:
Carleton installed its first commercial-sized wind turbine in 2004. This 1.65 MW turbine is connected to the public utility grid and provides 4000 - 4700 MWh of electricity annually. Both the power and the Renewable Energy Credits are sold to the public utility, so Carleton cannot count this production as an offset to its annual GHG emissions inventory.

Option 4 

Total third-party certified RECs, GOs and/or similar renewable energy products (including renewable electricity purchased through a utility-provided certified green power option) purchased during the performance year:
15,355 MMBtu

A brief description of the RECs, GOs and/or similar renewable energy products, including contract timeframes:
Carleton recently started purchasing RECs through our utility provider, through their Renewable Connect Program. We purchase RECs in an amount of the power we deliver to the grid from our first wind turbine.

Optional Fields

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

 

Sierra magazine requests the following information from U.S. institutions that wish to share data with that organization:

Electricity use, by source (percentage of total, 0-100):
Percentage of total electricity use (0-100)
Biomass 0
Coal 26
Geothermal 0
Hydro 0
Natural gas 23
Nuclear 10
Solar photovoltaic 2
Wind 37
Other (please specify and explain below) 3

A brief description of other sources of electricity not specified above:
Carleton purchases most of its electricity from the public utility (Xcel Energy).

Energy used for heating buildings, by source::
Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100)
Biomass ---
Coal ---
Electricity ---
Fuel oil 2
Geothermal ---
Natural gas 98
Other (please specify and explain below) ---

A brief description of other sources of building heating not specified above:
23128 gallons of fuel oil = 3177 MMBTUs = 2% of total heating in FY19 (151179 MMBTUs).

Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:
13.32

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The performance year is considered to be fiscal year 2017.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.