Congratulations! Your design team has been hired by Costco Wholesale Corporation [1] to propose solar integration in one of their regions (to showcase one of their commercial retail buildings in each location). You job is to make a short written survey of the case, suggesting a plan to maximize the solar utility for their regional management in Texas.
Building Location: Austin, TX
The caveat: While your design team is nationally known, you live in St. Louis, MO. This means that you will have to do some background research for an upcoming pitch to the regional manager. Your goal is to make a convincing argument for them to arrange a charrette that your team will eventually lead. I would suggest you develop the outline by addressing three topics that commonly occur in a solar integration discussion: (1) energy efficiency, (2) adding PV on site or off-site, and (3) possibility of adding solar hot water on site.
Diverse resources available from the USA Dept. of Energy:
There are also extensive resources available at the 7Group website [10].
Submit your outlines as PDF files in the Canvas Learning Activity 6.1 Dropbox: Pre-Design Summary. Appropriately cite any references used in your report.
You will be graded on your ability to develop a compelling outline that raises new questions and provides scope for the upcoming charrette. All this is based on limited information of the actual site, but extensive access to general information about the type of building and potential stakeholders. The activity assesses your knowledge of investigating the client and stakeholders and the locale when planning to maximize solar utility in the pre-design phase.
This is a 20 point assignment
See the Calendar tab in Canvas for specific due dates.
Links
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charrette
[3] http://en.openei.org/wiki/Main_Page
[4] https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/building-performance-database-bpd
[5] https://energy.gov/eere/solarpoweringamerica/green-power-network-newsletter
[6] http://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/
[7] http://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/resource/1188
[8] http://buildingdata.energy.gov/cbrd/resource/823
[9] http://www.dsireusa.org/
[10] http://www.sevengroup.com/