San Francisco

Sector: Municipal Government

Population:

> 746,000 people

Carbon Footprint:

> Corporate: 9,700,000 metric tonnes CO₂e (2000)

TARGETS

> Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012
> Zero-emission bus fleet for City fleet by 2020
> Reduce electricity demand city-wide by 55 MW by 2008
> Obtain 50 MW of city-wide electricity from renewable sources by 2012
> Obtain 250 MW of city-wide power from gas and gas-electric co-generation by 2008
> Expand energy efficiency programs and renewable energy sources
> Improve local and regional public transit
> Achieve 75% landfill diversion goal
> Close aging power plants

Achievements

> Installed one of the largest city-owned solar power systems in the United States
> More than 700 clean air vehicles in City fleet
> In the period 2001-2004, San Francisco saved 4mW, 74,503 tons of CO₂, and achieved a 24,369 mWhr per-year reduction in electricity use from completed energy efficiency improvements

Benefits

> City-facility energy efficiency projects saving $10.7 million in energy costs per year
> More than 100 new jobs
> Assistance to 3,000 low-income residents and 4,000 small businesses
> Improved air quality

Low Carbon Solutions

Background

San Francisco first committed to action on climate change with a 1998 Board of Supervisors decision to join the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign. In the intervening years, San Francisco has set a greenhouse gas reduction target, completed an inventory of city wide emissions, and developed and adopted an ambitious Climate Action Plan that lays out the policies and programs the City is implementing to meet its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target.

In 2002, San Francisco adopted an Electricity Resource Plan that set goals and described a recommended resource portfolio out to 2012. The Plan guides implementation of the city’s energy efficiency, renewable energy and demand management programs. Among the energy efficiency programs are a Peak Energy Program that aims to reduce electricity demand in San Francisco by 16.4 megawatts

In 2002-3, the Department of the Environment managed Power Savers, a program to implement lighting retrofits for 4,000 small businesses with state rebate funds. The program received an Energy Star award from the US EPA, a first for a municipality. The program successfully converted the hard-to-reach small businesses to T-8 lamps and solid-state ballasts, reducing demand by 6 megawatts and saving each business between $600-$1,000 per year, for a total annual saving of $3.5 million per year.

Other energy efficiency initiatives aimed at the city’s operations and facilities include the installation of LED traffic signals across the City which is expected to reduce electricity use by 7.7 million kWh and save $1.2 million per year.

In 2005, SFPUC and Muni, the City’s railway, began a multi-year energy efficiency program aimed at both facilities and buildings. Preliminary savings estimates from this program are some 9,000 MWh in electricity, 65,000 therms in gas, and energy bill reductions of $400,000 per year, for a lifetime saving of about $6 million.

Global warming could raise sea levels by 1 to 2 feet within 50 years and swamp low-lying areas in San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay, including Heron’s Head Park in the City’s Bayview District. This shoreline park sits across a narrow channel adjacent to the aging Hunters Point Power Plant. The power plant is notorious for its air polluting emissions and the regional utility that operates it, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), hopes to close it by the end of 2005. In its place, SFPUC will install four smaller, more efficient and environmentally friendly gas-fired combustion turbine units. This transition is expected to result in a decrease in a 72% in in-city NOx levels by 2005.

Reacting to rolling blackouts and soaring energy prices, in November 2001 San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved a $100 million bond initiative to fund solar generation, energy efficiency measures and other renewable power sources for public buildings and community-based projects.

In 2004, San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) - the city department that oversees water, wastewater and energy for San Francisco and serves as the power provider to the City’s buildings and facilities - completed the largest city-owned solar power system in the U.S. The 675 kilowatt, 5,400 solar panel system rests atop San Francisco’s premier conference facility, the Moscone Convention Center. The system’s $8 million price tag also included strategic energy efficiency measures such as upgraded lighting systems. The 60,000 square foot photovoltaic roofing tile array is expected to generate some 826,000 kWh annually. Demand reduction from the lighting project will cut 800 kilowatts, for an estimated total savings of some 4 million kWh per year. Altogether, the Convention Center’s solar electric system and energy efficiency measures will save the City about $305,000 per year in reduced energy costs.

In mid 2005 San Francisco will begin installation of its second large-scale solar electric system at the Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant, the City’s largest wastewater treatment facility. Covering 20,000 square feet, this 230-kilowatt AC solar array will generate more than 300,000 kWh per year. A number of energy efficiency measures within the plant’s operations will accompany the new solar system. Replacing 16 of 48 aeration mixers and upgrading the remaining 32 units with a series of electric motors, the efficiency measures are projected to save an additional 1.5 million kWh per year. Ten additional solar power systems will be installed at City schools, libraries and health clinics by the end of 2006.

Generation Solar, a program administered jointly by the PUC and the Dept. of Environment, has streamlined permitting, reduced permit fees, created a qualified contractor pool, and established pre-negotiated prices for solar installation in homes and businesses. As part of Generation Solar, the PUC developed a network of eleven solar monitoring sites around the city to measure the amount of sunlight that hits a square meter area. City residents use this information to estimate energy and cost savings from installation of rooftop PV solar panel systems.

Produced by the City’s Department of Environment and its Public Utilities Commission (SF PUC), and released in 2004, San Francisco’s Climate Action Plan is centred on the goal of reducing citywide greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2012. This target was articulated in a resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors in 2002. To achieve it, San Francisco must reduce its annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 2.5 million tons by 2012.

City staff crafted a Plan focused on four categories of emissions reductions - transportation, energy efficiency, renewable energy and solid waste. The plan also recommends the establishment of a City interdepartmental working group to monitor Plan implementation, track progress and quantify CO₂ emissions and reductions. It is one of the most ambitious big-city greenhouse gas reduction commitments and programs yet in the United States.

A recently passed Green Building Ordinance requires LEED™ “silver” certification in all City construction projects over 5,000 square feet. For instance, in cooperation with the green building program, San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital’s addition of a 1200 bed rehabilitation healthcare facility will use thirty percent less energy and save the City more than $7 million over the course of ten years. 75% of all construction and demolition debris from the addition will be recovered or recycled.

Many of the transportation steps identified in the Climate Action Plan are already underway. With more than 700 clean air vehicles (compressed natural gas, hybrid, electric, biofuel and propane) in its transportation fleet, San Francisco is an established leader in low emission vehicles. More than half of city’s Municipal Railway (Muni) fleet is comprised of zero-emission vehicles and the City sponsors programs to promote low-emission taxicabs and liquid natural gas, long-haul garbage trucks. Muni will be the first California transit agency to buy buses with the latest hybrid technology, and its 2004 Zero Emissions 2020 Plan calls for Muni to establish an all-electric drive fleet that includes hybrid buses, battery buses, and fuel-cell buses by 2020. “Muni aims to be emissions free by 2020,” according San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Executive Director Michael Burns.

In early 2004, San Francisco added two Honda FCX hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles to its city fleet through a lease arrangement. Hydrogen fuel cells are the latest in clean air vehicle technology, producing no emissions other than pure, drinkable water.

The City Plan also recommends support for federal action to increase national fuel efficiency standards for vehicles (known as CAFÉ standards), and estimates that this alone would result in some 555,000 tons of greenhouse gas emission reductions within San Francisco. Intra-regional road vehicle trips accounted for slightly more than half of all vehicle trip emissions in 2000 and are projected to continue to grow faster than city trips. About half of San Francisco’s 600,000 jobs are filled by non-resident commuters, swelling the city’s daytime population to about 1.1 million as compared with a resident population of 746,000. Because of this, recommended transportation actions must be implemented regionally as well as within San Francisco city limits.

675 kilowatt, 5,400 solar panel system of San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. Image courtesy of NREL, Credit: Powerlight Corporation

Photovoltaic cells laminated into skylight glass at the Thoreau Center for Sustainability in the city’s Presidio National Park. Image courtesy of NREL,
Credit: Atlantis Energy, Inc.

San Francisco has implemented a number of energy efficiency measures city-wide.
Image courtesy of NREL, Credit: Jon Cosner

More than half of city’s Municipal Railway (Muni) fleet is comprised of zero-emission vehicles.
Courtesy of Chaffee Yiu: http://www.chaffeeyiu.com

In early 2004, San Francisco added two Honda FCX hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles to its city fleet through a lease arrangement. Image courtesy of NREL, Credit Tom LaRocque