The New City Services Building Strives Toward Sustainable Design, Even During Construction
April 2, 2018 3:47 PM
by Drew Lowell
The new City Services Building is receiving a lot of buzz from the sustainability features integrated into its design, construction and operations. On-site, as of late February, there are bulldozers and power tools buzzing and workers are laying underground utilities such as plumbing and rain-water cisterns. A couple blocks away, in the Civic Center Parking Lot, construction project managers and architects are coordinating all the moving parts of this ground-breaking, Living Building Challenge Certified building. The green features of this building actually extend to the construction trailers blocks away. That’s right, even the construction trailers are net-zero energy. All the power these trailers need is being supplied by solar panels and batteries.
In keeping with the Living Building Challenge requirement of net-zero energy buildings, the contractor, Hathaway Dinwiddie, purchased (60) 335-watt solar panels and approximately 60 kWh of batteries to power their construction trailers while on the job. There are enough batteries to power the construction trailers for 4 days with no sun. Fortunately, here in Santa Monica we get plenty of daily sun to keep the batteries adequately charged and the construction trailers fully functional.
The 20.1 kW DC system was brought in from an assembly plant in Atascadero, CA. The enclosed trailer that houses the solar inverters, charge controllers, and batteries also has an electric sub-panel for the construction trailers to interconnect. The solution is safe, reliable, and on top of that, it does not run out of gas, require oil, and is completely silent.
The City is proud to see the construction project partners committing to renewable energy to power its operations. In two years, once the project is complete, Hathaway Dinwiddie will take advantage of the system’s portability and transport the solar trailers to their next project site.
If you are interested in solar for your project, please visit www.solarsantamonica.com or email Drew Lowell-Britt at Drew.Lowell@smgov.net
City of Santa Monica Office of Sustainability and the Environment: www.sustainablesm.org
Mobile Solar: www.mobilesolarpower.net
Newport Power: www.newportpower.com
Authored By
Drew Lowell
Sustainability Analyst