HVAC systems in institutional and commercial facilities are at the leading edge of integrating renewable energy sources, including photovoltaics, heat pumps and wind turbines. This transition is a significant step toward reducing facilities’ greenhouse gas emissions carbon footprints, and it can produce cost savings and energy performance improvements for organizations.
Integrating renewable energy into HVAC operations can extend system life and improve air quality. Systems powered by clean energy face less wear and tear compared to those running on conventional power sources because renewable sources often provide a more stable supply of electricity, improving energy efficiency and reducing energy use.
Nationwide, renewable technology integration is well underway, with one caveat. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has predicted that renewable sources will generate 44 percent of America's electricity by 2050, mainly from wind and solar power, though renewable sources accounted for just 11.66 percent of America's primary energy in 2023.
Retrofitting existing HVAC systems, including water heating, space heating, and ventilation systems with renewable sources poses challenges for maintenance and engineering managers involved in planning and overseeing such projects. One major hurdle is compatibility issues between existing systems and new technologies. Another challenge in renewable energy integration is upfront costs.
Given the great promise of renewable HVAC technology and the complex nature of integrating it into facilities, managers need to take a careful and thorough approach to the process.
The process of integrating HVAC technology into existing systems and facilities is especially complex because of the existence of technology that might or might not be suitable for integrating.
“It's pretty straightforward to implement this in a new building when you have a blank sheet of paper and you're trying to design a building around this,” says Jeffrey Rios, P.E., who is senior vice president, built ecology, property and buildings, with WSP, a consulting engineering firm. “But when you have an existing facility and you have a lot of existing infrastructure, you really need to be conscious about what you have and the age of the infrastructure you have. You need to be conscious of that to make sure you're not trying to do a piece of technology that doesn't integrate easily.”
One critical early step managers can deploy is a conditions assessment of their facilities, systems and equipment that will be involved in and affected by integrating renewable technology.
“Let's start with an organizational assessment or campus assessment and look at energy use at the facility within the organization to understand what their current pain points are so we can truly understand what the end opportunity may look like,” says Travis Short, vice president of commissioning with Henderson Building Solutions, a consulting engineering firm. “That may complement an existing master plan. It's probably also a preliminary energy audit to understand current usage trends and opportunities. Ultimately out of that, we can recommend a specific solution, whether it's solar PV or geothermal solar storage.”
Among the range of elements of the integration process that are essential for success, one stands out.
“It’s critical to understand the power availability at the site,” Rios says. “It's one thing to replace an electric chiller with a heat recovery chiller. That's probably not going to blow your electric service. But full-scale renewable HVAC systems might blow your electric infrastructure. It may be a pretty big impact to what you have on site, so think that through with your utility on planned infrastructure changes.”
While managers certainly need to understand their existing facilities and HVAC systems to ensure a successful introduction of renewable technology, they also need to understand which technology — whether it is photovoltaics, heat pumps and wind turbines — will best help them support their organizations’ goals.
“That technology has rapidly accelerated in the last five years,” Rios says. “There are tons of different manufacturers making stuff that we didn't hear about five years ago. The equipment can do things that it used to not be able to do. It can work in colder and colder climates. It can produce hotter and hotter temperature, air and water, depending on what the system is. It's becoming more viable as a solution for many folks across the country.”
Adds Short, “Our understanding is that folks have a level of familiarity with a broad number of systems, potentially not all of them and potentially a depth of understanding of a few of them. Rather than getting too target focused on just the few that we know about, we really want to keep them all in mind when we're performing that assessment or having those early discussions.”
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
