It’s actually day 1 if you don’t count the “pre-conference” day, but whatever. For me it seems like day six of wandering around Pasadena. Ok, based on my immideate impressions, day 2 was less successful. Part of it was my mistake. I blindly assumed the “Green Building” track was where I should be, but the afternoon session was pretty much a waste of time while the other room had Planning, Funding and Executing the Green School, by none other than Bill Savidge. I should have done that. The presentation I sat through was a description of two pretty interesting green schools, but I’m sorry…. so what? Showing me all the cool stuff you did in your school in Portland, Oregon or Park City, Utah does not give me much in the way of useful information.
The rest of the day went like this… David Thorman spoke about Grid Neutral schools. It’s a good goal and surprisingly achievable but the really cool part was when he included a couple of slides on the NDC model of PPA financing. Way to go Aaron. The State architect is promoting the NDC financing method. Cool. Once again, as I am listening to the presenters, my mind wanders to how I can use this information on our projects. It seems clear that PV’s are great, but energy efficiency measures must go hand in hand with the installation of them. We should encourage our districts to perform energy audits or even full out retro-commissioning prior to installing photovoltaics. Also, it occurred to me that north facing monitors on flat roofs make handy little supports for PV’s while bring in light to interior spaces. It’s like a double cool thing to do.
The last presentation in the afternoon was supposed to be on the new 2009 CHPS criteria, and I guess it was, but it was essentially the same information that was presented yesterday morning. The lesson learned is that there is a lot of new stuff in the new version, so check it out. Bill Orr did elaborate on the funding available. Over $1.6 Billion still remains available for modernizations from the last state bond (Prop D). Also, of the $100 million made available for high performance incentives, approximately $75 million is still available. Frankly, Savings By Design pays more, but hey, it’s something.
That’s it for today. Let’s hope the final day has more to offer.