National Gypsum Solar PV

Consisting of over 5,000 roof top mounted, solar PV panels; National Gypsum is Duke Energy’s first major solar photovoltaic installation. At 1.2 MW/DC it will produce nearly 1,600 MWH/yr; enough power to nearly 100 houses for 1 year.

Optima Engineering provided the engineering design for Narenco (National Renewable Energy Corporation). Narenco will install the system on National Gypsum’s headquarters in Mt. Holly.

Target date for full system operation is January 2010.

East Guilford High School

This new 300,000 square foot high school was a replacement of a school that burned. The design schedule was accelerated to get the school built as fast as possible.

The school employs the latest in lighting design control systems as well as daylighting. Other highlights include:

• 4-pipe mechanical system with air cooled chillers and condensing boilers
• Variable flow pumping systems for reduced energy consumption
• Variable air volume airside systems for centralized maintenance and zone control
• CO2 sensors and Demand control ventilation in high occupancy spaces
• Energy recovery design in the locker room wing
• High efficiency lighting system with stepped ballasts
• Lighting controls utilizing occupancy sensors and building automation
• Low flow plumbing fixtures for reduced water usage

Carolina Ingredients

Carolina Ingredients is a food ingredient blending and distribution company that has relocated their entire facility from Charlotte, North Carolina to Rock Hill, South Carolina. As part of the relocation and expansion process Carolina Ingredients chose to seek LEED-certification for their new location, a 58,000 square foot renovation, to ensure that their goals for sustainability and energy efficiency were met.

As part of the building renovation, older, less-efficient HVAC equipment and lighting systems have been replaced with high-efficiency HVAC equipment and fluorescent lighting. In order to offset the utility-based energy consumption by the facility, a solar water heating system and solar photovoltaic (PV) panels have been installed. The solar PV system includes 156 panels rated at 216 watts each, which creates 30 KW during peak solar times. The 30-KW solar PV system is one of the largest installations in the southeastern United States. The solar water heating system uses the sun’s energy to pre-heat cold water coming from the city.

Carolina Ingredients is seeking LEED-certification under the new LEED 2009 New Construction rating system. The majority of LEED credits that have been attempted by this project fall under the categories of Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, and Regional Priority. The Regional Priority credits include Water Efficiency Credit 3 – Water Use Reduction (Exceed 40% Reduction), Energy and Atmosphere Credit 1 – Optimize Energy Performance (Exceed 24% for existing building renovations), and Energy and Atmosphere Credit 2 – On-site renewable Energy (Exceed 1%).
 

Western Elementary

The Western Elementary School is truly a one of a kind, a true net zero school, that produces more energy that it consumes, designed to achieve a LEED Platinum rating. Countless hours were put into the upfront decisions on this project, rethinking all aspects of the design of an energy efficient, sustainable, truly life cycle cost effective school building. The architects modeled many different types of building, glass, roofing, and structural systems. Once those decisions were made, fourteen different HVAC systems were priced and explicitly modeled for annual energy usage and cost, including cogeneration and ice storage systems. Geothermal was eventually selected, even with the high upfront cost, beating the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline by more than 50% in energy cost, and opening the door for LEED points and tax incentives. There are 320 wells at 250’ depth, so there’s over 160,000 linear feet of wellfield piping. In addition, there is a dedicated outside air systems with air to air energy recovery used in the classroom wings, and a demand control ventilation system used in the variable occupancy spaces.

While still not a certainty due to cost issues, almost the entire 100,000 square foot flat roof was designed to be covered in energy producing solar PV panels, generating almost twice the energy needed to power the school.

Solar energy is also used for the domestic water heating. Daylighting is designed into all classroom spaces, utilizing sophisticated lighting controls and stepped ballasts. An integrated Building Automation System is designed not just for the HVAC system, but to control all of the building systems, and monitor the energy consumption of all aspects of the project. This school is currently under construction in Cumberland County, outside Fayetteville, NC, with anticipated completion in the summer of 2010.
 

NC Museum of History – Cistern Project

An existing 6,940 gallon cistern below the underground parking deck of the NC Museum of History collects water from a spring at a rate of approximately 10 gallons per minute (gpm). Once the cistern fills to a certain level, the water is pumped out of the cistern by an existing 7.5 hp duplex dewatering pump system up to the existing storm drainage system at the street level.

Optima has designed a new pumping strategy so that the water from the cistern is used to irrigate the adjacent Old Capitol Grounds as well as the drip irrigation planters in the Plaza above. This is to be done by removing the inefficient existing 7.5 hp duplex pumping system and adding two 1.5 hp submersible pumps, placed down inside the cistern, that pump the water out of the cistern and into a new buffer tank on the lower parking garage level. From the buffer tank, the water is pumped up to the street level using a new 3.5 hp duplex variable speed booster pump system. The new water lines from the booster pump are routed through the parking deck up to the street level and tied into the existing irrigation water lines serving the Old Capitol Grounds and the Plaza above. A truck fill station was also added so that the state’s water trucks could fill their tanks from the cistern to water planters at other government sites.

This approach avoids wasting water by dumping cistern water down the storm drain and saves money from not paying to use city water to irrigate the existing facility grounds.
 

Rocky Mount High School

Rocky Mount High School presented a new challenge in Optima's 50% energy reduction initiative. Being over 150,000 square feet, the ASHRAE baseline for this building is significantly more efficient than smaller elementary schools, so more measures were taken to approach that goal. The building is based on a prototype non-LEED building, so not all design decisions could be catered for sustainability. Many strategies from the successful Dragonfly prototype were applied to this project, including geothermal HVAC, Dedicated Outside Air Systems, efficient T5 lighting strategies, combined with comprehensive daylighting strategies utilizing daylight sensors and stepped ballasts to further reduce energy consumption.

The owner's request for centralized maintenance created an opportunity for a hybrid VAV design in the HVAC system, with large units located on lofts, cleverly sized, zoned, and designed for further reduction in fan energy. Lastly, the domestic water heating system utilizes water to water heat pumps on the geothermal loop, to assist in peak shedding and reduce wellfield size.

Z Max Dragway

Photographer: Todd Arnett

 

It is the only all-concrete, four-lane drag strip in the United States.  The NHRA will have Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle races at the dragway, among others. 

The track, pit area, and midway covers over 46 acres.  Grandstands are on each side of the strip, holding 30,000 people.  There are 24 luxury suites above the main grandstand. 

The starting line tower is the most prominent feature of the Dragway.  It is a 34,000 square foot tower with 16 luxury suites and roof access for guests.

There is a broadcast booth for ESPN announcers and a press box for media members, as well as a control room for race officials.

There is over 6 miles of buried conduit for power and controls for the facility.

Decision Support Solar Energy System

The two story office building in south Charlotte has one of the largest solar photovoltaic systems on a commercial office building in the state of North Carolina. 

It has 109 panels on the roof, each capable of producing 210 watts each, for a total of 22KW of power during peak solar times.  The solar PV system uses lightweight solar panels, SunPower Interlocking Roof Tiles, providing an efficiency ratio of approximately 21%, which is exceedingly high for the industry.

The energy provided to the owner should exceed $5,000 per year!  Not only will it make a positive impact on the environment, the system should pay for itself in about 8 years, and then provide income every year thereafter! 

Ballantyne Village is a large office/retail development in South Charlotte.  It has a parking deck, retail, restaurants, offices, and a theater.  The project was also designed with two future towers (hotel and office) and residential condos to be added in the future. 

The centerpiece of the project is a large “rotunda”, which can be seen for miles.  We utilized color LED fixtures to provide the lighting at night for the exterior of the rotunda.  The lighting design earned an International Design of Merit with the Illuminating Engineering Society for exterior lighting.  Another challenge on the project was the electrical metering. 

The total number of meters could end up being in the hundreds, with a large cost associated with that.  We encouraged the owner to purchase their own metering system, which they did.  It saved a lot of initial construction costs, and will continue to save money every time a new tenant is changed or added to the complex.

This was a corporate headquarters located in Fort Mill, SC.  It was built in a large existing warehouse in order to speed up the construction schedule.  A mezzanine was added for additional space. 

The challenge was to design a class A office space in a “warehouse”, and have it designed and built in an urgent manner.  The project had a substantial data center associated with it, including UPS and generator systems. 

All of the infrastructure was designed with equipment deliveries in mind, as well as meeting the needs of the customer and making it a Class A building.

Time Warner

This is a four-story, 120,000 square foot, corporate headquarters building located in South Charlotte.  This building is the first phase of a campus-style master plan for the company. There is also a parking deck which will be expanded as additional buildings are constructed on the campus. 

The main floor of the building has a large main lobby and consists of executive conference rooms, training rooms and a 10,000 square foot cafeteria and dining area. A separate UPS system was installed for security and communications systems in the building and an extensive telecommunications pathway system was installed throughout the campus for ease of connectivity to future buildings.

Reflection ponds and walking trails were also added around the building as well as a lighted covered path between the building and parking deck.