OSD in the News: Sunnyside school is focus of neighborhood energy plan

The developer behind the North Pearl District energy plan is hatching a new idea to heat and cool as many as 500 homes in Southeast Portland's Sunnyside neighborhood with energy from the earth.

John Sorenson's proposed community-owned Sunnyside Neighborhood Energy utility, SunNE, would be centered at Sunnyside Environmental School, where a central plant would replace the school's 1917 oil-burning boiler with a solar-powered geothermal heat pump. The plant would then connect to a network of underground pipes circulating through the surrounding 38 blocks.

The system wouldn't supply electricity to the neighborhood but would supplant the electricity and natural gas used to power hot water heaters and air conditioners.

"This concept has never happened - a district energy plan centered on a public school," Sorenson, who owns MidTech Energy, said.

With support from a host of state and local leaders, the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association and Portland Public Schools, Sorenson is seeking $55,000 from the Portland Office of Sustainable Development to study the feasibility of a system in Sunnyside.

"There are a lot of questions, but the fact that there's interest from the schools and (the community) is promising," Tom Osdoba, OSD's manager for sustainable economic development, said. "It'll be quite a challenge, for sure."

Developers have installed a similar system at the downtown Brewery Blocks, and the city is studying the possibility of building one in the undeveloped North Pearl District. But a Sunnyside district energy plan would be the first system installed where the homes were built decades ago, Osdoba said.

The installation would require ripping up Sunnyside's streets to lay pipe, replacing the school's roof with one that will last at least 20 years and replacing its mechanical systems, and upgrading efficiency measures in the homes that would connect to the system.

Sorenson estimates the project will cost between $7 million and $9 million to install, which he hopes to meet in part through the Oregon Business Energy Tax Credit and other state and federal tax incentives.

Homeowners would cover the remaining cost through monthly payments to the SunNE utility for their energy use. But they'll need about $2.5 million up-front to lay pipe and install the central plant.

Meanwhile, Sorenson has collected letters in support of the project from U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), state Rep. Diane Rosenbaum (D-Portland), state Sen. Kate Brown (D-Portland), Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder and Portland Public Schools' facilities manager Bryan Winchester as well as the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association.

"The initial reaction from neighbors was ‘You want to do what?'" Tim Brooks, president of the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association, said.

That attitude has since changed. "There's a lot of interest and also a realism that this could go nowhere," Brooks said.

After two meetings on the idea, neighbors are "cautiously optimistic" about the potential for a carbon-neutral neighborhood consistent with its sustainable ethos, Brooks said. The project is also an opportunity for the community to come together on a project that it would ultimately own, he said.

Brooks' own home at Southeast 34th Avenue and Morrison Street is overdue for a new furnace, he said, but he's waiting to see if the district energy plan pans out before he sinks a lot of money into a replacement heater.

Sunnyside Environmental School is also long overdue for an upgrade to its mechanical systems, which needs Portland Public Schools to pass a bond measure before it'll see a new boiler. The Sun NE utility would pay for the upgrades under the MidTech Energy plan, Sorenson said.

"It's such a big project. It would be great for an environmental school to get to do that," Sarah Taylor, principal of the charter school, said. "We have a goal of sustainability and place-based education."

The big payoff comes in cutting carbon emissions, Sorenson said. As much as 80 percent of a household's energy use comes from the heating and cooling systems, according to the Federal Energy Information Administration. Sorenson estimates the project, at full scale, would cut 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

"We've done some rough numbers, and it's unbelievable what the carbon offset is," Sorenson said. "So it might be as significant as the downtown project."

The Office of Sustainable Development next month will announce the 2008 recipients of $425,000 in grants available through its green investment fund. If the Sunnyside district energy project receives funding, MidTech hopes to complete its feasibility study this spring.