Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 75.77
Liaison Ezra Small
Submission Date March 2, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Massachusetts Amherst
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.00 / 4.00 Ezra Small
Sustainability Manager
Physical Plant
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total energy consumption (all sources, excluding transportation fuels), performance year :
2,086,405 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:
42 MMBtu

None
A brief description of on-site renewable electricity generating devices :
UMass Amherst has significantly increased the on-site renewable energy generation over the past 5 years. In FY15 the campus had 16 kW of solar PV energy from the Deerfield Farm. In FY16, UMass Amherst installed a 336 kW solar PV canopy system. In FY17, UMass Amherst installed a 5.5 MW solar PV system on 7 different sites (2 parking canopies and 5 rooftops). The only project for which the institution retains or has retired the associated environmental attributes for is the 16kW Deerfield farm solar PV (12,342 kwh=42 MMBTU).

Option 2 

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

None
A brief description of on-site renewable non-electric energy devices:
In FY16, UMass Amherst installed a 113 kW solar thermal system on the CHP. 113 kW (387kbtu/hr) solar thermal system at the CHP (26,155 kwh=89 MMBTU)

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:
---

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:
0 MMBtu

A brief description of the RECs, GOs and/or similar renewable energy products, including contract timeframes:
---

Optional Fields

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
http://www.umass.edu/sustainability/climate-change-energy/solar

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 0.90
Coal 0.72
Geothermal 0
Hydro 2.13
Natural gas 84.79
Nuclear 9.30
Solar photovoltaic 0.18
Wind 0.72
Other (please specify and explain below) 1.26

A brief description of other sources of electricity not specified above:
Oil and ULSD accounts for the 1.26% other fuel used.

Energy used for heating buildings, by source::
Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100)
Biomass 0
Coal 0
Electricity 0
Fuel oil 1
Geothermal 0
Natural gas 99
Other (please specify and explain below) 0

A brief description of other sources of building heating not specified above:
---

Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:
0.01

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Used https://www.iso-ne.com/about/key-stats/resource-mix grid mix data for accounting for 30% of our energy used for electricity.

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.