By Tom Flanigan
Tallahassee, FL – In the world of clean energy, one big goal is something called "Net-Zero" buildings. Those are structures that produce as much power as they consume. Tom Flanigan reports Leon County will soon be one of the few places in the Southeast to have such a building.
Thanks to nearly-half-a-million-dollars in federal stimulus money, Leon County's Cooperative Extension Service building on Paul Russell Road will soon have the area's largest solar power array.
Those panels will double as a shade over the existing parking lot and will crank out up to sixty kilowatts, enough electricity to meet the building's total energy demand. That demand will be less than it is now because the grant will also pay for a new closed loop geothermal system.
That will provide the building's heating, cooling and hot water needs. County officials say all this will make the Cooperative Extension building a working model for green energy conversion.