DOE/ORO/2327 Oak Ridge Reservation Annual Site Environmental ...

Oak Ridge Reservation
Sustainable Practices
Green building and landscaping as well as energy management efforts are included in all activities at
ORNL including research, design, construction, retrofit, operation, and maintenance. One million square
feet of LEED-certified campus space provides a multitude of opportunities to perform research on
emerging energy-efficient technologies, green construction, and proper operation and maintenance of
green facilities. An aggressive commitment to building LEED-certified buildings at ORNL along with the
incorporation of other energy-saving measures has added 35% more facility and building area with only a
6% increase in energy consumption when comparing FY 2009 data to a 2000 baseline.
UT-Battelle has also maintained and expanded
sustainable landscaping activities at ORNL including
native planting on 17 acres at ORNL (see Fig. 5.9) and
307 acres across the ORR and removal of invasive plants
from 140 acres at ORNL and 500 acres across the ORR.
Three solar collectors on the ORNL campus provide
research opportunities as well as renewable energy to the
laboratory. ORNL’s first solar collector, an array of 24
solar panels, was originally used as a symbol of
alternative energy research and continues to generate
renewable electricity. The second solar collector is an 88
m by 3 m (288 ft by 10 ft) collector made up of 168
modules. Designed to provide 51.25 kW at peak power,
the array feeds direct current to an inverter, which
produces alternating current for the ORNL distribution
grid. A total of 88 MWh of direct current is produced
annually, or about 70 MWh alternating current
(equivalent to the average annual power needs of 5.5
Tennessee homes). This array is designed to be 18.7%
efficient and to displace approximately 51,710 kg (114,000 lb) of carbon dioxide every year (more than
seven times the amount produced annually by the average American). The electricity added to the grid is
used to offset electricity for Buildings 3147 and 3156. The third, most recently installed collector is a
single-axis tracking 700-watt total energy concentrator with low-cost, flat, aluminum mirrors that reflect
sunlight onto the smaller solar cells in the concentrator. Since only one-third of the area of this array
consists of solar cells, the concentrator can produce more energy with fewer expensive solar cells.
Research is under way at ORNL to determine how well the array will perform in the naturally hazy
atmosphere of East Tennessee.
The large 88 m by 3 m (288 ft by 10 ft) solar collector specifically supports ORNL’s aggressive netzero
energy building (NZEB) goal which will transform the four buildings that comprise the ORNL
Buildings Technology and Research Integration Center to NZEBs. ORNL accomplished the first step in
meeting this goal on October 1, 2009, when ORNL self-declared Building 3156 to be a NZEB with plans
under way to transform the remaining buildings. Due to aggressive implementation of energy efficiency
measures, Building 3156 decreased its consumption from about 100 MWh/yr to 60 MWh/yr, which is
provided by solar power.
Green Transportation
UT-Battelle performs a broad range of green transportation–related research and development
activities at ORNL and also embraces current technologies and techniques to reduce fuel consumption.
UT-Battelle has implemented a multi-pronged approach to green transportation: (1) encouraging
personnel to walk and to ride bikes through innovative campus design, (2) encouraging shared
transportation, (3) integrating maximized fuel efficiency features when upgrading roads, (4) continuing
the expansion of alternative vehicles and fuel including hybrid vehicles, flex fuel vehicles using E-85,
electric vehicles, and diesel vehicles using B20 bio-diesel, and (5) researching and implementing future
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Fig. 5.9. Plants and natural landscaping.