{"id":67196,"date":"2017-10-03T15:14:44","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T01:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=67196"},"modified":"2021-06-24T11:34:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T21:34:19","slug":"energy-savings-a-top-priority-at-uh-hilo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/10\/03\/energy-savings-a-top-priority-at-uh-hilo\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy savings a top priority at <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_67207\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67207\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hilo-sustainability-pv-array.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"350\" size-full wp-image-67207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hilo-sustainability-pv-array.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hilo-sustainability-pv-array-300x155.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-67207\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo&#8217;s <abbr title=\"photovoltaic array\">PV<\/abbr> array system has a capacity of about 500 <abbr title=\"kilowatt\">KW<\/abbr>and is distributed among the Student Services Center, the College of Business and Economics facility, the Mookini Library and the Performing Arts Center. The array saves the university approximately $300,000 per year in electricity costs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> is continuing to take the lead in many initiatives that focus on clean energy and sustainability. There are many projects and initiatives happening on campus that stretch across a wide variety of sectors. Some of these projects include repair and renovation, moving the university toward a more sustainable and green future. A major goal of these projects is to become carbon neutral by 2050&#8212;the renovations and changes are helping to reach this goal.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/sustainability\/energy\/dashboard\/\"><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Net Zero Energy by 2035<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&ldquo;<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo is continually reducing its negative environmental impact and striving to be ecologically restorative in our campus buildings, systems and operations,&rdquo; says <strong>Jerry Watanabe<\/strong>, director of the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/uhh\/planning\/\">Office of Facilities Planning and Construction<\/a>. Watanabe helps to make these initiatives, whether large or small, possible.<\/p>\n<h2>The big plan<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_67213\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67213\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hilo-sustainability-energylights.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"353\" class=\"size-full wp-image-67213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hilo-sustainability-energylights.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hilo-sustainability-energylights-255x300.jpg 255w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-67213\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student employee in the Office of the Chancellor points out the energy saving lighting installed in early 2016. Photo by Claudia Hagan, <em><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The energy savings projects at <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo are initiated by different parties on and off campus&#8212;larger scale projects tend to be initiated by the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> System. However, maintenance and smaller projects are more of a campus effort and can come from students, faculty and\/or staff.<\/p>\n<p>Since there are numerous campus renovations and updates, funding can be tricky. However, each year <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo submits a budget for projects to the State Legislature for approval. The Energy Reinvestment Projects Account (ERPA) was established by the university to help with funding of the energy saving projects.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This account is intended for planning, design, construction and equipment of retrofit and production projects with a calculated payback period of less than 10 years,&rdquo; explains Watanabe.<\/p>\n<h2>Leading the way<\/h2>\n<p><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo is leading the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> System in sub-metering and baseline data recording, bi-level lighting, energy requirements in design contracts, reinvestment account, and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Energy Rebates. Managing <abbr title=\"Energy Reinvestment Projects Account\">ERPA<\/abbr>, which <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo established and keeping track of savings from energy efficiency improvements falls under the Office of Facilities Planning and Construction and has become the model for the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> System.<\/p>\n<p>Watanabe says his goal is, &ldquo;to meet or exceed the university&#8217;s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>With this mindset and ambition, <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo could achieve its goal and much more thus not only benefiting <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr>, but bettering the community and environment.<\/p>\n<p>For more about how <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo handles battery storage, lighting and energy rebates, <a href=\"http:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/news\/stories\/2017\/10\/03\/energy-savings-are-a-top-priority-at-uh-hilo\/\">read the full article at <em><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;A <em><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em> article written by Anne Rivera, a public information intern in the Office of the Chancellor<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/p>\n<p>This article is part of a series on curriculum and projects at Â鶹´«Ã½Hilo focusing on sustainability. Read the previous stories:<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/09\/11\/climate-change-course-challenges-uh-hilo-students-to-find-solutions\/\"><em>Climate change course challenges Â鶹´«Ã½Hilo students to find solutions<\/em><\/a>, September 11, 2017<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/09\/18\/uh-hilo-learning-gardens\/\">Sustainable agriculture practiced at Â鶹´«Ã½Hilo learning gardens<\/a><\/em>, September 18, 2017<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo is a leader in baseline data recording, bi-level lighting, energy requirements in design contracts, reinvestment account, and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Energy Rebates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1359,73,14,907],"class_list":["post-67196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-energy","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67196"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144181,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67196\/revisions\/144181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}