Xcel Energy Honors Colorado State University as One of 12 Energy Efficiency Expo Award Winners in Colorado

Xcel Energy has honored Colorado State University with a 2010 Energy Efficiency Expo Award for energy conservation measures installed on the university’s Foothills Campus – the state’s only institution of higher education to receive the award this year.

Xcel selected 12 recipients out of a pool of 700 submissions for the award. Collectively, the organizations and businesses selected saved more than 24 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 3,100 dekatherms of natural gas, which avoided the production of more than 16,000 tons of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of keeping 5,000 cars off the road for a year, according to Xcel.

“This is an honor for the university, and a tribute to our hard working facilities staff to reduce our energy usage on campus,” said Rick Miranda, provost and executive vice president at Colorado State University. “We are grateful to Xcel for this important recognition.”

The Xcel award addresses conservation measures in a 57,000-square-foot laboratory on the Foothills Campus known as the Research Innovation Center. In particular, Xcel honored CSU for a hot-water preheating system at the boiler that allows the use of boiler exhaust to heat water for the building systems. Additionally, the efficient design will help reduce natural gas use for the building.

The majority of the LEED and energy efficiency initiatives were administered by The FWA Group Architects and GH Phipps Construction Cos.

Additional energy-conserving highlights in the building:
• Building design incorporates numerous features to enhance energy and resource efficiency and creates a unique, pleasant place to work and complete research.
• Energy enhancements include items such as use of natural day-lighting and high-efficiency fixtures for electric, gas and water usage.
• Energy efficient features in the glass and insulation systems.
• A 57 kilowatt photovoltaic array will be installed.
• Water saving measures to minimize sterilizer water cooling needs (closed system cooling tower and system).

Roughly 600 Colorado Xcel Energy business customers attended Xcel’s Energy Efficiency Expo in Denver last week, which featured teams of energy experts from Xcel Energy and outside organizations providing participants energy-saving ideas and opportunities for rebates and energy efficiency study funding. Xcel Energy offers incentives, such as rebates for energy efficiency measures and funding for efficiency studies, to its business and municipal customers to encourage them to make energy-efficient choices.

In January, Colorado State University worked with Xcel to dedicate a two-megawatt solar plant on the university’s Foothills Campus – one of the largest solar plants in the nation at a university. Each year, Xcel Energy solicits bids for solar installations to meet the solar energy mandates of the Colorado Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, also known as Amendment 37. Colorado State partnered with Fotowatio Renewable Ventures to submit a bid to Xcel for a two-megawatt installation, which was one of three bids selected by Xcel. The project, part of the Xcel Energy Solar*Rewards program, received a rebate to offset construction costs.

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