Performing LEED Green Power Calculations

Green Power credits

To calculate your project’s required green power purchase quantity for the Green Power credit, choose one of the methods below according to your project type and calculation method. See these pages for more guidance on Green Power credits: NC EAc6 | CS EAc6 | Schools EAc6 | CI EAc4 | EBOM EAc4

For LEED-NC and Schools projects

Calculation Based on Design Energy Cost

Total Required Green Power Quantity = Design case total electricity usage  X  35%  X  2 years

  • The Design case total electricity usage may be obtained from EAc1 calculations or energy model results.
  • Confirm accurate threshold percentage to achieve desired LEED points.
  • LEED-NC and Schools projects will calculation 35% of the electricity use to achieve EAc6.
  • Exemplary performanceIn LEED, certain credits have established thresholds beyond basic credit achievement. Meeting these thresholds can earn additional points through Innovation in Design (ID) or Innovation in Operations (IO) points. As a general rule of thumb, ID credits for exemplary performance are awarded for doubling the credit...

Your green building reference library

Why waste time chasing down referenced standards and supporting resources when LEEDuser links you directly to the ones you need? LEEDuser has gathered all the best tools out there and organized them by credit for easy reference. Members get links to:

  • Organizations that can give information or help on a credit or strategy.
  • Standards or studies that are key reference points.
  • Articles that help explain important topics.
  • Key documents or references for needed inputs.
  • Software tools you can use to run calculations or simulations.


6 Comments

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Christopher McArdle Mechanical/Energy Engineer EwingCole
Nov 17 2011
Member
2 Thumbs Up

can i take a credit for on site renewable energy for green power

I have PV panels on my project building. Can i deduct the annual energy produced from the pv panels when calculating the amount of Green Power to purchase?

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Marcus Sheffer LEED Fellow, 7group Nov 17 2011 Guest Expert 4851 Thumbs Up

If you have sold your RECs then you use the total electric consumption of the building. If you own the RECs (and agree not the sell them during the two year purchase period) then you can subtract the solar output from the total electric consumption.

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Marcus Sheffer LEED Fellow 7group
Mar 03 2011
Guest Expert
4851 Thumbs Up

Calculation Options

LEED NC, Schools and CS projects can also utilize the Actual Consumption Calculation listed above under CI.

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John Albrecht Senior Sustainability Specialist Sieben Energy Assoc
Aug 30 2010
Member
790 Thumbs Up

Green Power and on-site renewables

Can a project pursuing this credit reduce it's green power RECA Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) is a certificate representing proof that a given unit of electricity was generated from a renewable energy source such as solar or wind. These certificates are able to be sold, traded, or bartered as environmental commodities, where an electricity consumer can buy the renewable energy attributes of electricty to support renewable energy, even if they are consuming generic grid-supplied electricity that may be supplied by nonrenewable sources. purchase by the amount of green power to be generated on site via a new solar array? If so, does this calculation occur automatically within the referenced LEED Online EAc1 template, or is this an additional manual subtraction after the EAc1 template (Table 1.8.2(b) - Energy Cost and Consumption by Energy Type - Performance Rating Method Complianceresult)? The template language ('subtracted from model results to reflect Proposed Building Performance') is not perfectly clear to me. Thanks. John

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Marcus Sheffer LEED Fellow, 7group Aug 31 2010 Guest Expert 4851 Thumbs Up

Yes. The renewable energy inputed in section 1.6 of the template shows up in table 1.8.2b. If you have an all electric building you could uise the Total value at the bottom of this table, but if you have gas consumption you would need to factor that out. The total electricity purchased for EAc6 would be the modeled kWhA kilowatt-hour is a unit of work or energy, measured as 1 kilowatt (1,000 watts) of power expended for 1 hour. One kWh is equivalent to 3,412 Btu. minus the renewable kWh.

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John Albrecht Senior Sustainability Specialist, Sieben Energy Assoc Sep 06 2010 Member 790 Thumbs Up

Marcus, that helped, thanks,. John

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