Community Energy Systems Newsletter

By TIM LANDIS, BUSINESS EDITOR, State Journal-Register 2008, tim.landis@sj-r.com. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning
This article was also reprinted in Architecture Magazine -at least online. To see the original article go to http://sj-r.com, go to their "archives" section, and type in IMEA.

Parking spaces for environmentally friendly vehicles and car pools are only the outward signs of a green building that relies on nine miles of underground piping for geothermal heating and cooling, reduces water usage by 30 percent, and adjusts its own lighting based on natural lighting available and the number of people in the room. The headquarters off Old Jacksonville Road, just west of Veterans Parkway, is on a bus route. There are storage and shower facilities for employees who ride bicycles to work, and even the plants are environmentally correct.

"All of the plants are native to this area," said T. David Parker of Melotte Morse Leonatti, the Springfield firm that designed the Prairie-style building. The Dana-Thomas House designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright also served as a model. While the green construction cost about 5 percent more than a conventional design, association executives said savings would more than pay for the building, including $6,100 a year on energy bills alone. "We believe this will become a model for people from around the state," said general manager and CEO Ronald Earl, adding that the "real-time" power purchases in the high-tech control center would help keep costs down at a time of unpredictable energy markets.

Another simple feature of the building is that the windows have adjustable shades. Yes of course they are double painted gas sealed low-e coated gasket fitted windows. In other words more energy conscious then most glass in most buildings in Illinois, but when you don't want light, you can block it out entirely and when you want light or heat you can let it in through 12 ft. windows with the pull of a string. -- CENSYS President, Doug Nicodemus

"We believe this will become a model for people from around the state," said general manager and CEO Ronald Earl, adding that the "real-time" power purchases in the high-tech control center would help keep costs down at a time of unpredictable energy markets.

"It's not about the electrons anymore, it's financial. It's just like playing the stock market," he said.

The control center is housed in a steel and concrete-reinforced room built to with¬stand an F5 tornado (winds of 261-318 miles per hour). The windows also have "hurricane shutters" that can be lowered during threatening weather, a feature used when severe thunderstorms hit the area earlier this month. Earl recalled that one of two tornadoes that hit Springfield in March 2006 passed just a few blocks south of the former headquarters at 919 S. Spring St.

"We were on a concrete slab there, and our engineers told us if the tornado had come two blocks north, it would have wiped it clean," he said.

Both Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Tim Davlin pointed out the IMEA headquarters likely would become the first Springfield building to receive the "Leadership in Ener¬gy and Environmental Design" certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED certification is based on stringent national guidelines for environmentally friendly construction and restoration designs.

"We have to be more efficient in the use of electricity, and that is what this is all about," Quinn said.

Ron Earl, the CEO and President had this to add in a Letter to the Editor in the SJ-R:

The work of the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation was invaluable to us in the planning, financing, and construction of our building. Since its creation in 1999, the ICECF has invested in clean energy development and land preservation efforts throughout Illinois and has worked with many communities and citizens to improve environmental quality in Illinois.

In our case, the foundation provided grants to IMEA, which made it possible for us to install our state-of-the-art geothermal heating and cooling system. The grants included funds for the system itself and funds to commission the building after installation.

The commissioning process takes a holistic look at all the building's systems and makes certain that they are operating in the most efficient manner possible. The grants were also instrumental in our ability to apply for certification as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building.

To see the specifications that CENSYS President Doug Nicodemus posted at the CES website, go to: http://censys.org/blog/?p=195.

March, 2008: LEGISLATIVE UPDATE FOR 2007
"Thank God the Legislative Session came to an end. In fairness, the session should have ended in May but they did get a lot done when they put their minds to it. What follows is the Energy Legislation from that session: Good, Bad, and Ugly." -- CENSYS President, Doug Nicodemus