Renewable Energy
Utilization Plan

Silver State Renewables, Inc. can provide comprehensive project management services to your project. Our main vehicle to accomplish this is to use a Renewable Energy Utilization Plan (REUP). 

The purpose of a  REUP is to delineate the scope, schedule and cost of a project to take full advantage of renewable energy resources. The ultimate goal might be to completely replace conventional equipment (natural gas, fuel oil, propane, and "all electric" equipment etc.) with renewable energy equipment. This would include the heating and air conditioning equipment, the domestic hot water equipment, the electrification of the building and the implementation of passive solar design concepts where appropriate. 

It might alternatively describe a stand alone project to feed electricity onto a utility's grid under a net metering agreement with the utility. 

The scope of a REUP could be designed to be small or all-inclusive. For example, a small plan could be developed to just replace the natural gas furnace in one building with a ground coupled heat pump (geothermal) system.

An example of an all-inclusive plan might be to completely reconfigure all of the buildings on a college campus to take full advantage to renewable energy resources. This could include:

• Replace conventional furnaces with ground coupled heat pumps (geothermal).
• Remodel existing buildings and/or redesign proposed buildings to take better advantage of passive solar design principles.
• Redesign the domestic hot water system to take full advantage of available solar energy.
• Design and manage the installation of a wind farm to help electrify the campus.
• Design and manage the installation of a photovoltaic (PV) farm to help electrify the campus.
• Design and manage the installation of solar greenhouses to compliment agrarian curricula.

The schedule of a REUP plan could be designed to follow a fast track implementation or for example, a more deliberate "10 year plan". In any case some or all of the following subjects should be shown on a PERT diagram to indicate critical milestones and deadlines.

• Site Selection
• Land agreement
• Resource assessment
• Environmental review
• Economic modeling
• Interconnection studies
• Permitting
• Sales agreement
• Financing
• Equipment procurement
• Construction contracting
• Operations and maintenance

Depending upon where the project is in the REUP will determine what kind of cost information is known.

If the plan is in the early stages of development and is seeking funds to pay for the project, then a capital and operations and maintenance cost estimate based upon a typical $/sq.ft. value might seem appropriate (+ or - 25%).

If on the other hand a more detailed cost estimate is determined to be necessary, then an engineering study should be initiated to determine the size, cost and configuration of the equipment needed. It would require a bid process to determine the intangible and installation costs based upon the engineering study. This should reduce the uncertainty to less than 10%.

After the project begins, a cost tracking process should be initiated to compare the actual costs to the cost estimate and report any variances.

At the end of the project a full cost analysis should be done to determine problem areas, either in the design, installation or preparation of the cost estimate and report those findings.

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