World of Solar Thermal - Solar Thermal Energy Daily News, Events, Companies, Products, Jobs and more : Kanuga gets greener with solar water system

Kanuga gets greener with solar water system
================================================================================
Pangea on 10/12/2009 22:00:00
 
Using a solar thermal purchase agreement, FLS Energy will sell Kanuga the heat
generated by 131 solar panels on the roofs of 11 buildings across Kanuga. The
solar thermal system owned and operated by FLS Energy will provide heat for
water used in the Kanuga Lake Inn’s kitchen, laundry and 62 guest rooms as
well as for 10 other buildings on the 1,400-acre campus. The Kanuga project is
the largest of its kind in the state and one of the largest in the southeast.
“Environmental stewardship is in Kanuga’s DNA,” said Stan Hubbard, Kanuga
president. “From its founding as an Episcopal conference center in 1928,
Kanuga has practiced and taught conservation. This project is a logical
extension of Kanuga’s core values because it will significantly reduce our
reliance on propane, a nonrenewable fossil fuel.”
Each year staff and visitors at Kanuga use approximately 1.5 million gallons of
hot water, which requires generating some 1.2 billion British Thermal Units
(BTUs) of heat. Heating water had previously required burning more than 15,000
gallons of propane augmented by electricity each year. During the next 25 years,
that process would cost Kanuga an estimated $1 million. The same energy produced
through the new FLS solar thermal system is projected to cost about $300,000 and
create a savings at Kanuga of nearly $700,000.
“This project also will have significant environmental benefits,” said Frank
Marshall, a partner in FLS Energy. “Each year the solar thermal system we are
operating at Kanuga will prevent the production of more than 100 tons of carbon
dioxide pollution, the leading cause of global warming. The system also will
generate power equivalent to the amount of electricity needed to service 34
average American homes and the carbon offset will be comparable to planting
20,000 trees.”
Others involved in the Kanuga arrangement include Progress Energy Carolinas,
which has agreed to purchase the renewable energy credits associated with the
solar thermal project under a long-term agreement, as part of its plan to
support and develop clean, renewable energy in North Carolina. First Citizens
Bank of Hendersonville provided conventional financing as part of the
transaction. Equity financing was provided by Bank of America as part of its
green initiative through its participation in a clean energy investment fund
sponsored by CityScape Capital Group.
The solar water heating project is the latest in a series of environmental
stewardship efforts by Kanuga. In January 2008, Kanuga installed 3,785 compact
fluorescent light bulbs across the campus. That same month, work was completed
on a three-year project to install solar water heating systems at nine cabins at
the Bob Campbell Youth Campus, a project paid for through private donations.
In the mid-1990s Kanuga reduced its propane usage by installing roof insulation
and thermopane windows in the Kanuga Lake Inn, which was built in 1968.
Kanuga’s wooden chapel and much of the Arts and Crafts furniture in the guest
rooms was made from timber felled on the property by storms.