20-0505 Off-site Renewables Transferred Ownership 3.X

STAFF POST

Project teams who are pursuing Zero Energy certification or the Energy Petal as part of a certification under Living Building Challenge 3.1 or 4.0 are permitted to utilize non-directly owned renewable energy in their application of the Offsite Renewables Exception subject to the requirements identified below. 

Teams utilizing non-directly owned renewables must demonstrate that:

• The annual renewable energy output is guaranteed through a long-term contract that provides a volume of energy equivalent to 15 years of the project’s anticipated energy use. The annual output of the system must be equal to or greater than the project energy use during the performance period, as required by the certification being pursued.
• The contract for renewable energy achieves additionality; it is demonstrated that the development of renewable energy systems originated from the project team and/or the system would not have been developed otherwise due to financial constraints.
• Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are retained by the project team or retired on their behalf.
• The renewable energy system is physically identifiable and publicly attributed to the ILFI project, including in educational signage at the project site.
• All other criteria for renewable energy that are stated in the Offsite Renewable Exception are met, excluding those related to direct ownership.
• Project teams must provide a narrative description of the renewable energy ownership arrangement as well as a copy of contract language and/or terms to demonstrate that the above criteria are met.

Note that the criteria for non-directly owned renewables applicable to these certification programs are now harmonized with the renewable energy requirements of the Zero Carbon certification program.