Wind Production is Sporadic - 2015 USGBC Energy Summit

The 2015 USGBC Energy Summit provided a great opportunity for about 125 participants to share industry and product knowledge. PACE Houston was asked to be a Partner and to provide education about Property Assessed Clean Energy.

Participants included keynote speaker Dr. Peter Hartley of Rice University who spoke on energy resources. He highlighted the point that reserves are not an adequate reflection of the world's supply of fuel. The reason is that companies keep their reserves at about a 10 year supply before exploring for new reserves. So we are "Not about to run out of fuel!"

The chart to the right shows (somewhat humorously) that wind energy can be sporadic!

H.B. "Trip" Doggett of ERCOT also spoke about the Texas electric grid. The most interesting point (for me) was the percentage of Texas power that comes from wind; that is, 20-30% of our power which represents about a fifth of the wind generation capacity in the U.S. The problem with wind suddenly increasing and then dropping off just as quickly as a front moves across the state is being addressed by geographically separating wind farms so that as one drops off another picks up.

Many speakers gave informative talks. The big elephant in the "energy efficiency room" is the building envelope - a subject of Peter Hutley of Curtainwall Design and Consulting thoroughly addressed. He gave an informative and in-depth talk on metal frame windows.