Energy Efficient City Facilities
The City of Madison is taking action to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our own facilities. To better manage facility energy consumption, we have been benchmarking and reporting all building energy performance since 2015, and we share this information on our Energy Dashboard.
We uses this benchmarking information to stay on top of our energy use, identify opportunities to save energy and money, and validate impacts of energy-efficient decisions. In the last ten years, the city has invested roughly $250,000/year in energy efficiency improvements, including operations changes, transitioning to LED lighting, upgrades to HVAC equipment and more. And we regularly tune up our buildings to make sure they're operating well - over the last 5 years, facilities staff have tuned up libraries, major Parks and Water Utility facilities, as well as Police and Fire Stations. Check out the Engineering Division's Energy page for more details on how the our Facilities Team is leading on energy efficiency.
All new City facilities are designed, contracted, and built to achieve at least Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Fifteen facilities have achieved LEED Certification, and more are are in the process of being certified. Check out the Facilities Team LEED page to learn more about the City's work to be a leader in green building practices and a full list of City LEED certified buildings.
Geothermal Feasibility Study
With support from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission's Office of Energy Innovation (OEI), the City is exploring geothermal heating and cooling solutions at the Monona Terrace. Geothermal presents an opportunity to modernize the aging infrastructure at this iconic Madison building with a sustainable solution that could serve as a model for large community spaces and convention centers across Madison and the State of Wisconsin. Monona Terrace's unique attributes, surrounded by Lake Monona, built over railroad tracks, and clad in historic architecture, presents significant constraints for conventional geothermal systems. The study is investigating creative alternatives which should highlight the potential to use renewable energy solutions even in challenging locations.
