Tag: MMC

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Countering Climate Change with Carbon-Neutral Building

By Jeff Hawkins

Sixteen years ago, the Conservation Committee hosted the Melting Mountains Conference to a packed house in the Mazama Mountaineering Center (MMC) auditorium. We covered four climate change-related topics: the state and future of glaciers; governmental policies and actions by the city, county, and state; organizational change; and individual action.

I took the last two to heart and decided to make the Mazamas carbon neutral. It has been a long path with numerous obstacles: naysayers, financing, technical challenges, competing priorities, and my own foot-dragging. But now, after all that, I am thrilled to announce that we are finally there. The MMC is now carbon neutral! (The Mazama Lodge is not and will not be for a while unless an angel steps in with a donation of an estimated $250,000.)

We did this by eliminating our natural gas usage and going 100 percent electrical, installing high-efficiency heat pumps, reducing our electrical consumption, creating our own electricity via a large solar array, and purchasing 100 percent green power from Portland General Electric (PGE) for the balance of energy not created by our solar system.

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The final step of replacing the boiler with heat pumps is particularly exciting. The new system will add heating and cooling to areas of the building not previously conditioned: the library, the library workroom, the basement lobby, and the MR1 classroom*. The boiler, which was far too large of a heat source for the auditorium, will no longer be driving us to wastefully open the windows an hour after turning it on. The auditorium will also have air conditioning. Mathew, in the library workroom, will no longer swelter in the summer and huddle around two space heaters in the winter. And the basement lobby and library will be comfy too. Along with these spaces, the archives have a new system too, far more efficient than the original system that broke nearly two years ago!

Our total energy bill might stay the same or potentially go down. We will use more electricity and less natural gas (zero actually). For the last two years, and likely this year too, the solar array has produced more than 100 percent of the electrical energy consumed. The excess production has been donated to PGE’s Energy Assistance Program, an average of $1,750 per yearǂ. The MMC also used approximately $1,250 per year in natural gas. This means there is $3,000 per year available to cover increased electricity usage for the new heat pumps. The actual usage depends on the members.

By the time you read this, a demolition party will have already removed the boiler, the radiators, and the piping. It took three weekends, nearly 200 hours of work and about 15 volunteers to haul away thousands of pounds of boiler-related remnants.

There are of course many people to thank—people whose efforts and donations made this possible. They are too many to include for all the projects since the start of this journey. For this final step, major funding came from Linda Lewis on behalf of her late husband and Mazama member Phil Dean, who was a champion of Mazama history and the archives, and from George Cummings, Rick Pope, Dick Miller, and Jim Van Lente, with additional donations from Albert Iggi, Terry Brenneman, Peter Boag, Debra Wilkins, Noelle Price, and Rahul Ravel. Jeff Welter and Rick Amodeo contributed in a big way by helping with the engineering of a different heat pump system for the auditorium that we ultimately did not pursue.

Efforts like this are not wasted; they are essential in the process of considering alternatives that lead to a final best solution. And Mazama Facilities Manager Rick Craycraft listened patiently to every one of my ideas and complaints, and to the range of emotions I experienced along the way. I am grateful to you all. Thank you.

It is my hope that the work we do together as Mazamas, to be consistent with our mission, will inspire others to action. The glaciers are melting. We have more work to do. Let’s keep at it. Please find a way to contribute in whatever way you can. If not on reversing climate change, then to the Mazamas in other ways. What we do together touches people’s lives in amazing ways. 

* MR1 was heated by two electric wall heaters. Replacing these units with a heat pump will save significantly on peak electrical demand and overall consumption.ǂ Donating excess annual solar-generated electric energy to the Energy Assistance Program is part of the Net Metering contract with PGE.

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Solar Power is Coming to the MMC

by Jeff Hawkins

In the fall of 2006 it became clear to the Conservation Committee that we were in the age of climate change and the Mazamas’ Mission to protect the mountain environment assumed a new urgency. We needed to do more. We needed direct links between our mission and our own actions. This led us to a vision for reducing the Mazamas carbon footprint. The committee first calculated the Mazamas’ carbon footprint, which mostly consists of emissions from automotive miles driven to our various activities, followed by the MMC and the lodge utilities—electricity, natural gas, and heating oil. Then in spring 2007 we created and hosted the Melting Mountains Conference for a packed house in the MMC. Glaciologist Andrew Fountain spoke along with political leaders from the City of Portland, Metro, and the Oregon Legislature. In the fall of 2009 we started a tree planting program and have worked in the Sandy Basin Watershed nearly every spring and fall for eight years planting an estimated 6,500 trees. There have been small efforts too, like installing a hand dryer in the restroom at the MMC to reduce a huge consumption of paper towels.

The next action is to install a solar electric array on the MMC. We tried once in 2008, but ran into legal issues and an economic recession that prevented us from obtaining financing. There were also important concerns about penetrating the MMC roof for attachment.

Things have changed. Installers now have available non-penetrating clamps for panel attachment to the seams of the MMC roof. Costs have come down by a factor of four. And there is better understanding on how to structure financing that works for non-profits.


Here are some basic parts of the plan:

  • A Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) is the legal structure we will be using to fund the array. It forms a relationship between an owner (Elemental energy) and a host (Mazama MMC). The owner finances the array. The host has the array on their building and purchases the power from the owner. This is an especially beneficial arrangement for the Mazamas. It allows us to work with a for-profit partner who can take advantage of the Federal Investment Tax Credit which is 43% of the funding.
  • PPAs come in variations. We will be using a prepaid PPA where the value of power to be generated over the duration of the contract is estimated and is paid up front. This is less complicated than making quarterly payments based on actual power generated and is significantly less costly due to eliminating administration—meter reading, billing, power payments and loan repayment to investors.
  • The Mazamas Foundation will be providing a loan to the Mazamas for the power pre-payment.
  • The array will generate ~41.4 kWh/year, which is estimated as 60 percent of the MMC’s electricity usage and is worth $4,300/year. The Mazamas will pay off the Foundation loan with these savings.
  • Elemental Energy, our for-profit partner (also the installer), will own the array for 10 years at which point the Mazamas will purchase the array at fair market value.

There are other costs:

  • We owe the Oregon Clean Power Coop $2,696 for developing the PPA contract and for arranging a for-profit partner. This will be loaned to the Mazamas by the Foundation.
  • Legal review of the PPA has been done and paid for from the Mazamas general spending account.
  • Installation of safety anchors, structural improvement, gutter repair, roof cleaning and tree removal are estimated to cost $10,000. This will be paid for by member contributions and the MMC maintenance account.
  • End of contract purchase is currently estimated at $2,538.

The solar array will be grid tied, that is, it will produce power only when the electrical grid is operating. There will be no batteries. We will not be able to power the MMC when PGE’s grid is down.

PGE will be our virtual battery. Excess power generated during the peak months of March through August will be “stored” as credits for use during the winter months when generation is lower and heating cost is higher. See illustration.

In every project there are concerns. These are the most commonly expressed and our responses,

    • Roof life: Two independent roof inspections indicate that the MMC roof is in excellent condition with an estimated life of 25 years or longer.

    • Roof attachment: We will be using a clamp that is designed to attach to the standing seam on the roof without penetration.

    • Roof strength: The roof is secured to the building along the seams with one screw every two feet. This is standard, but our roof inspector believes it is insufficient to safely support the weight of the array. We are seeking input from structural engineers that might lead us to add more screws at the top of each roof panel. Other roof work will be done at the same time—cleaning, repairing gutters, and adding safety anchors for array installation and future maintenance. 
    • Building strength: The trusses are on 24-inch spacing and in this situation the City of Portland does not require structural engineering. We have elected to do this anyway. Though when we had this done in 2008 the building was found to be more than strong enough for the then proposed 20 kW array that was only 60 percent the size of the current 37.4 kW array.
    • Legal issues: The PPA that will be in place between Mazamas and Elemental Energy was reviewed on behalf of the Mazamas by David Van’t Hof, an attorney who focuses on sustainability, clean technology, renewable energy and carbon regulation. David is also a Mazama member.
    • Contractor experience: Elemental Energy has been in business since 2008 and has installed nearly 300 hundred in Oregon and internationally. The have used this clamping system before. 
    • Should anything go wrong, in spite of our best efforts, the Mazamas Foundation will have insurance for damage to the structure and for the replacement value of the array.

    The next steps are to sign contracts, complete the detailed design of the array, submit plans to PGE for pre-approval, order materials, and complete installation by the end of February.

    Many thanks to many people for the participation and support along the way.

    • A long list of people in 2008 who contributed so much during the first attempt. You all know who you are.
    • Dan Orzech at Oregon Clean Power Coop for creating the current contracts and identifying our financial partner.
    • David Van’t Hof for legal review.
    • The Foundation Committee for detailed review of the contract, asking all the important questions and providing the loan to the Mazamas.
    • Bob Breivogel, John Rettig, Dan Crisp, Gerry Itkin and Jeff Hawkins for member financial contributions

    Come March your MMC will begin producing half of its annual power usage for the next 25 years—$4,300/year and approximately $130,000 total. And perhaps more importantly, we will be actively living the values we hold dear by protecting the environment we all cherish.