Condominiums and apartments like other large buildings use 40 percent of energy in the U.S. If you live in a condo or apartment and want to reduce energy consumption, save money and perhaps use more renewable energy like solar, you'll have to think collectively. That means that your condo association, home owners association or landlord has to take action on the residents behalf. This article presents two distinct approaches of doing that by using Demand Side Management and installing solar photovoltaic or solar thermal for your building.

Any condo or apartment uses electricity to light and cool/heat common areas and in some cases provide hot water as well. That's the case even if your condo unit or apartment has separate electricity metering or this is included as part of your condo fee or rent. Most of the energy tax incentives are focused on single family homes, but that is changing.

The price of electricity will continue to rise along with the price of nutural gas in the long run. So when you think of making an investment to reduce energy use or produce renewable energy, you'll have to think 20 years into the future. Every condo and apartment building can contribute to  greener energy future, reduce it's energy costs and help stabilize the electric grid by enrolling in demand side management programs and installing solar panels on their roof tops. Furthermore there are many energy management and solar development companies that will help you determine what the best options are for your particular circumstances. We name some at the end of the article.  

Condominiums and apartment buildings are attractive to energy management and solar power companies because:

1. They use a great deal of electricity to light, heat and cool common areas.
2. Many offer substantial opportunities to improve energy efficiency and provide demand side management to electric utilities.
3. Offer great roof tops to install solar power and solar thermal panels to produce electricity and heat water.

Condos and Apartment Buildings and Demand Side Management Programs
Here's how Demand Side Management works in a nutshell. The condo or apartment building agrees before hand to reduce their electricity consumption during emergencies or when there is an incident in the area served by the electric utility. In return, the condo or aparment buildikng gets paid for doing so. An incident may be caused by bad weather, problems with existing power plants, or large demands for power during critical periods.

Think of of it this way. Your electric utility has two ways of meeting the power demand from customers. It can dispatch more power plants to produce power or it asks existing customers to cut back. Every electric utility does it's best to keep costs down and that means doing everything it can to prevent calling additional power plants on line to provide the power. That's because as the demand for electricity increases during the day, the more expensive power plants are called up as a last resort. Some of these power plants are so expensive to run that they sit ideal for 51 weeks out of the year. But when there is no other way to meet the demand for power, then they are called into service. The end result when this happens is that the electric bills for all of us go up astronomically.

So if enough condominiums and apartment buildings agree to curtail there electricity use for just a short period, an electric utility may be able to avoid used that expensive power plant altogether. As we said before, if a condominium or apartment building agrees to do this, they'll get paid for it. So in the end, everyone benefits and there is less stress on the electric grid and the environment.

Here's an example. Lets say that an electric utility forecasts very hot weather and needs 100 megawatts of power to get through the peak power period. As a last resort it will turn on that very expensive power plant, but it really doesn't want to. Instead, the electric utility goes to the market and says I need 100 megawatts of power between 4 pm and 7:30 pm. Companies in the electricity market then offer the power in two ways:

a) Demand side management companies who work with condos, apartments and other companies offer to cut back power usage equivalent to 75 MW during those hours through Demand Side Management companies

b) Import power from other areas for the remaining 25 MW.

Usually power reductions are the least expensive way to meet the power demand and so they are usually accepted and valued by the utility. The Demand Side Management company makes money and passes a portion to the condos, apartment buildings and other companies enrolled in it's program.

A picture is worth a thousand words and this visual provided by EnerNoc explains how demand side management works. [Note: we are not affiliated with EnerNoc nor are being paid for writing this article].

Solar Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal Projects
Condominiums and apartment building are idea for solar energy projects for the following reasons:

1. The roof tops are ideal because they are out of sight and out of mind-- few people will object to them.
2. You put the energy close to the people who will use it and don't have to build new power lines.
3. The condo or apartment residents can use the power and sell any excess energy back to the electric utility.
4. Solar panels or solar tubes are easy to install on any flat roof.

The U.S. Department of Energy has begun to fund solar photovoltaic and solar thermal project in cities. Photovoltaic projects product electricity and reduce electricity use by 10 to 20 percent. Solar thermal is used to heat water for the most part.

The following cities have been targeted in DOE's Solar America Cities Special Projects:

1. Austin, TX
2. Berkeley, CA
3. Boston, MA
4. Madison, WI
5. Milwaukee, WI
6. Minneapolis – Saint Paul, MN
7. New Orleans, LA
8. New York City, NY
9. Portland, OR
10. Salt Lake City, UT
11. San Diego, CA
12. San Francisco, CA
13. San José, CA
14. Santa Rosa, CA
15. Seattle, WA
16. Tucson, AZ

Some of the cities like Seattle, Madison, Boston and New York might surprise you. The list illustrates how diverse the cities and climate are and how solar photovoltaic or solar thermal applications fit in.

Take Action
Condo and apartment building residents can realize significant energy savings and costs. However, the key to getting started is to alert your condominium association, home owners association or your landlord/management company. We suggest that you forward this article to your association to at least get the conversation going and to also read our related articles about solar energy on the roof and demand side management programs.

If we can help you, please contact us as well.

Resources

• APZ Inc.
• Consumer Powerline Inc.
• Energy Curtailment Specialists Inc.
• Energy Connect,
• EnerNOC Inc. and and Converge
• Solyndr Solar

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