Building Efficiency in the 305
This is the April 25, 2023 edition of the Opportunity Miami newsletter written by Suzette Laboy, which we send every Tuesday. Click here to subscribe to get our weekly updates in your inbox.
Featured Content
Video Feature: Future Energy Managers
Watch how reducing energy costs can also help in lowering greenhouse gas emissions in Miami-Dade in our latest On Site featuring the #BE305Challenge
Buildings produce about 40% of greenhouse gas emissions in Miami-Dade County every year, the second-biggest emitter after transportation. Slashing that number is crucial in meeting our goals of reducing emissions.
To get there, the county began the Building 305 Challenge (BE305) in April 2021 to help owners of residential, commercial, and institutional buildings save energy — and money — with the help of engineering students from the University of Miami who complete energy and water assessments.
“There’s actually a lack of onsite energy managers in general,” said UM engineering Professor Ramin Moghaddass, who also serves as the Director of the Data Analytics Lab and the Industrial and Research Assessment Center at UM.
This hands-on experience for the students will help “to develop the next generation of energy engineers for the U.S. workforce,” he said, adding that it provides “an amazing opportunity for students to learn various aspects of engineering.”
Follow the students on their energy assessment of the Grand Venetian in Miami Beach in our latest On Site video, which you can watch here.
COLLECTING DATA
More than a dozen students team up with Professor Moghaddass to assess the building’s current performance by installing sensors and data loggers to understand better how much energy and water the building consumes. Then they come up with estimations and make recommendations on reducing emissions while saving energy based on the data collected.
“And we usually provide a report that is very detailed, and it gives an overview of how much they can basically save if they decide to implement our recommendations,” Professor Moghaddass explained. The students gather as many as 20 recommendations for each building, helping them to possibly save between 10–25% of energy per year.
THE FIVE-YEAR PROGRAM
The free, voluntary five-year program has worked with around 120 buildings in 34 municipalities, representing almost 30 million square feet of floor space.
“It is not the first time that the public sector partners with the private sector to address large important issues such as climate change,” said Marta Marello, a building and energy analyst with the county’s Office of Resilience who helps run the program. “But we are excited because we were the first ones to start a similar program in South Florida and right here in our community.”
The program is gearing up for its third cohort of building owners. The first to sign up was Costex, a supplier of heavy equipment replacement parts, which we featured in a previous On Site for being the second-largest solar panel project in South Florida.
“It’s been great to work with different property managers, buildings, and companies to learn what are the pain points in their buildings and how we can support them,” Marello said.
The goal of the BE305 Challenge is a 20% reduction in energy and water consumption by 2026 — helping reach the long-term goal of becoming a net-zero emissions community by 2050. The recommendations proposed by the students could save buildings more than four million kWh and nearly $300,000 a year while reducing energy bills on average by 45%.
FUTURE ENERGY MANAGERS
“The students are a key part of this project,” noted Professor Moghaddass, who added that this assessment serves as hands-on experience the students wouldn’t receive in their regular coursework. “There’s a lot of different areas that the students can become professional in by the time that they leave the lab.”
That includes becoming experts in assessing manufacturing buildings or residential and commercial buildings as an energy analyst or onsite energy manager, filling a gap in the current workforce.
Find out more about the program here.
As ever, we would love to hear what’s on your mind. You can email us at next@opportunity.miami. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can subscribe here. We also invite you to subscribe to YouTube and follow us on social media channels.
Suzette
