Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/109754
thermal energy pilings that help save some 500 tons of carbon-dioxide emission annually. In Istanbul, Turkey, Metro Properties' Meydan Ümraniye Shopping Center operates one of Europe's largest geothermal plants, using some 200 heat-exchange devices as deep as 500 feet down. Geothermal systems are typically 50 to 70 percent more energy-efficient than other types of heating systems and 20 to 40 percent more efficient than "Solar is in your face, so it piques people's interest, but geothermal is tucked away so you can drive right by it and not know it's there." competing air-conditioning systems, according to the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association. Still, the U.S. shopping-center world has been slow to adopt geothermal systems, in part because initial installation costs do not jibe with investors' short-term horizons or with common-area-maintenance cost-sharing structures. "If we can manage to get financing where incremental payments are less than the monthly energy savings, [geothermal systems] will pretty much become a nobrainer," said Craig Immel, founder of Tulsa, Okla.–based Native Geothermal Co., which installs these systems. Another factor that works against U.S. geothermal acceptance also happens to be one of its strengths: its belowground invisibility. "Solar is in your face, so it piques people's interest, but geothermal is tucked away and protected from 46 SCT / M A R C H 2 0 1 3 the elements, so you can drive right by it and not know it's there," Immel said. Though U.S. commercial projects are eligible for only a 10 percent federal tax break for investment in geothermal energy — only a third of the corresponding tax credit offered to the residential development side — commercial developers can combine their 10 percent with a 60-cents-per-squarefoot allowance under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Immel says. "There's a tendency to get sticker shock initially, but once you crunch all the numbers, you see the potential," he said. Geothermal HVAC units are more costly to install than traditional systems, but the difference in up-front costs is often returned within three to seven years, through lower energy and operating costs, Immel says. Geothermal technology can work in much of the globe, though it is more cost-effective where there is consistently hot weather or in places where seasonal temperature swings are extreme, such as Oklahoma and Texas, Immel says. Places with unusually rocky ground or with moderate temperatures, like Los Angeles or San Diego, are less conducive. Grocery stores seem primed for an eventual geothermal-installation wave, he says, because their sizable parking lots can accommodate networks of subterranean piping. "With store margins at 2 percent, they're always looking for cost-saving opportunities," Immel said, "and geothermal is certainly one." But even though no major U.S. multitenant center has adopted geothermal, the federal government did choose Oak Ridge (Tenn.) City Center for a geothermal demonstration project and a conditional $5 million matching grant. The grant, which was never awarded, because of the shopping center's financial troubles, even came in for some ridicule from lawmakers as a boondoggle. Nevada, which leads the U.S. in geothermal energy development, has numerous commercial properties thus powered. The 2.1 million-square-foot Peppermill Resort Spa Casino, in Reno, Nev., home to some 20 eateries, nightclubs and retailers, is 100 percent heated by on-location geothermal, saving it some $1 million a year in energy costs on a $9 million investment. In Beaverton, Ore., the recently overhauled Highland Chevron/Extra Mile store has a new geothermal system that cools the retail building and its many refrigerators at half the cost of conventional HVAC, according to John Lower, owner of Vancouver, Wash.–based Total Energy Concepts, which installed the system. With the aid of 180 solar panels, the station produces as much power as it consumes. A geothermal unit at a Phillips 66 in Prairie Village, Kan., has pared energy use by 40 percent with a two-year investment payback, Lower says. And at a resort in Moose Pass, Alaska, Lower installed a geothermal system that cut energy bills from $30,000 to $5,000 over a five-month period, he says. Japan, which has 15 geothermal plants, is looking at replacing nuclear power plants with geothermal ones, in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. All but a handful of Japan's 54 nuclear plants remain offline. The country is building a massive geothermal power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. In the U.S., where geothermal systems account for about 3 percent of renewable energy-based electricity, recent drilling improvements could help increase geothermal-power generation here as much as 40-fold — enough to account for at least 10 percent of overall electric capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Experts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology theorize that the U.S. has enough geothermal energy to meet its energy needs nearly 2,000 times over. SCT