Around the Arch Blog

Photos of the Solar photovoltaic installations at the Downtown Parking Gallery and Downtown Events Center and the wind turbine at the Stead Wastewater Treatment plant have been added to the Green paged of Reno.Gov

The City of Reno is trying to install three small wind turbines on City Hall. The FAA ia currently reviewing and seeking comments on proceeding. Please show your support by going to http://oeaaa.faa.gov and registering your support. You find them by state and ASN# 2009-WTW-6023-0E and 2009-WTW-6024-0E. Support wind energy and spread the word.

City Hall – Two Cascade Engineering-Swift, 1.5 kW horizontal axis turbines on parapet mounts; One Aquilopower, 5 kW vertical axis turbine with a roof tripod mount. They are all less that 30′ high, shorter than the flag pole.

On November 2, 2009 the first hole was dug at the Stead Wastewater Treatment Plant to prepare the base for the installation of the 15kW Proven wind turbine. Work should be completed in the next month or so.

You can see the PowerPoint that was given to the Reno City Council in support of the energy projects. It includes summary of work, costs, and environemntal benefits.

City of Reno Energy Initative 2009

The following link will give you a one page summary on the City of Reno Energy Projects as approved by the Reno City Council on September 23, 2009, including costs and environmental benefits.

City of Reno Energy Projects

Big news for those of us that care about the environment, which should include everyone since we all share this planet.

Thanks to the Reno City Council appproval, dozens of projects will be underway that will create jobs, reduce the City’s energy use, and move towards more renewable forms of energy, without using money from the City’s general fund. I say that’s a positive!

So how can this be that money from taxpayers isn’t going to be used? Good question. Funding comes from rebates, federal grants, and bonds paid by energy savings.  The projects provide many environmental benefits plus help in getting Reno recognized as a city “going green.” I must say I always love when my city is positively recognized.  

Ok, so here are some details that will explain the specifics:

The Reno City Council approved a contract with APS Energy Services that provides for furnishing and installing improvements to achieve energy savings. Financing for the projects will be through guaranteed energy savings, Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREB’s), Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants (EECBG), Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds (QECB), Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds (RZED), NV Energy Solar Generations Rebate, and NV Energy SureBet Rebates.

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As part of the City of Reno Green Priority, the City is working to lower its carbon footprint through energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives. One such initiative involves installing wind turbines in the City of Reno.  In February of 2008, Council amended Title 18 of its code to comply with the Nevada Revised Statues ensuring local codes don’t inhibit the installation of renewable energy systesms. Now, the City has engaged in installing the wind turbines to offset its energy load and demonstrate to the citizens how the new generation of wind turbines compares to the old style wind turbines.  The cost of installatinon will be entirely covered through the NV Energy WindGenerations program and the Energy Efficiency Community Block Grants made available through the federal stimulus package.

Two to three turbines will be installed near each other with an aenemomter to measure wind speeds and show energy output versus manufacturer listed output. The sites that have been selected are on top of City Hall, on top of the Downtown Parking Gallery, Rosewood Lakes Golf course and the Stead Wastewater Treatment plant. The turbines that will be installed include the Cascade Engineering Swift, Urban Green, Helix Wind, Proven, Iskra, Synergy and Mariah Windspire. The last two are local companies that design and/or manufacture in Reno.

In support of the City of Reno Green Priority, the City has hired APS Energy Services to prepare a comprehensive energy audit for the City. The energy audit was approved by Council in August of 2008 and is scheduled to be completed in July of 2009. The audit has identified numerous energy conservation measures for City facilities that will lead to 20% reduction in energy use. The first phase of projects will be presented to Council in late May and includes lighting retrofits, boiler replacements, digital control systems, solar photovoltaic systems and wind turbine systems.

The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act appropriated $2,142,000 in Energy Efficiency Community Block Grant monies to the City of Reno. The City had been working on an energy audit of all parks and buildings since August of 2008 and had identified tens of millions of dollars of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Reno City Council gave direction to use stimulus funds to support these projects including energy retrofits of City Hall, a lighting retrofit of the Reno Arch and installation of solar photovoltaic systems and wind turbines on city properties.