 WERC Helps Design and Install Wind and Solar Energy Systems for Kennedy Community School to Meet Both LEED Silver Certification and the ENERGY STAR Label
The St. Cloud school district #742 needed to double the capacity of it’s 30-year old elementary school in rural St. Joseph, Minnesota. They decided the new school would be a model “green” school designed according to the latest standards for energy efficiency and sustainability.
The new school will be the first one in the nation to meet the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver certification rating for green schools. Construction of the 135,000 sq. foot school began in May 2007 and is expected to be completed in September 2008 at a cost of $25.5 million.
 The school will have room for 755 students. In addition to space for the sciences, art, and media, the building also contains a large gymnasium, a cafeteria with stage, and multi-use activity area. The design also encourages use of the commons areas by the community.
The school design includes energy and resource-efficient specifications to make it a model for green building in the community. WERC was contracted to design and install a Skystream 3.7 wind turbine and a 5.6 Kw photovoltaic (PV) solar electric system as part of the project. Not only will the wind turbine and PV solar system offset electricity use, but will also serve as an educational tool for sustainable renewable energy. (Installed 5.6 Kw solar array pictured at right).
Kennedy Community Schools' building design achieved Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR, distinguishing it as one of the nation's best in design intent.
To achieve superior energy design intent, the design team included numerous energy-saving technologies. A geothermal loop field and water-to-water heat pumps are the primary source of energy for both heating and cooling. Ventilation in most spaces will use displacement ventilation, providing greater comfort while using less energy to provide more fresh air into the learning spaces.
Daylighting is another important strategy for saving energy in the school. The design carefully oriented the classrooms along an east-west axis, giving the classroom windows north and south exposure. Using a modeling program, windows were designed for all of the general classrooms, the media center, the cafeteria, many of the administrative offices, and some of the music rooms to provide natural light at full lighting levels during much of the school's operational day. Tubular skylights will provide natural lighting to the interior corridors of the school. Occupancy sensors in all of these spaces will control dimmable fluorescent fixtures and reduce electrical lighting consumption.
The Kennedy Community School also uses renewable energy. Photovoltaic panels on the south facing roofs of the mechanical rooms and a wind turbine at the northwest side of the site will produce energy to be sold back to the utility, further reducing the school's energy bill.
Energy for the transportation of materials will be reduced by having at least 20 percent of the materials used in the project provided from within 500 miles of the site. The design team strongly emphasized selecting sustainable construction materials for the project.
The computers of St. Cloud Area School District 742 will be interconnected to the controls system of the Kennedy Community School to allow students access to the energy information produced by the school. And, through a partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, students will participate in the development and maintenance of a native habitat being created on the site. These initiatives will help the district provide experiential learning material and meet its goal of making the school an environmental teaching tool for the entire community.
On completion of the design, the design team input data for the Kennedy Community School into EPA's Target Finder tool to obtain the project's estimated design energy rating and associated greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs. The project achieved a rating of 85 (out of a possible 100), exceeding the minimum rating of 75 required by EPA to qualify as Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR. The building will be eligible for the ENERGY STAR label after maintaining superior performance for one year.
Winkelman Building Corporation is the General Contractor for the project with Grooters, Leapauldt and Tideman (GLT) as the architects. WERC worked with GLT and WBC from the design phase through completion and plans to continue with ongoing educational assistance to the schools for many years, comparing their data to other wind, solar and geothermal systems. |
