Strategy and Methodology for Rank-Ordering Virginia State Agencies Regarding 'Solar Attractiveness' and Identification of Specific Project Possibilities.

This paper describes the strategy and computer processing system that NREL, the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) and the state energy office, are developing for computing 'solar attractiveness' scores for state agencies and the individual facilities or buildings within each agency. In the case of an agency, 'solar attractiveness' is a measure of that agency's having asignificant number of facilities for which solar has the potential to be promising. In the case of a facility, 'solar attractiveness' is a measure of its potential for being good economically viable candidate for a solar water heating system. Virginia State agencies are charged with reducing fossil energy and electricity use and expense. DMME is responsible for working with them to achieve thegoals and for managing the state's energy consumption and cost monitoring program. This is done using the Fast Accounting System for Energy Reporting (FASER) computerized energy accounting and tracking system and database. Agencies report energy use and expenses (by individual facility and energy type) to DMME quarterly. DMME is also responsible for providing technical and other assistanceservices to agencies and facilities interested in investigating use of solar. Since Virginia has approximately 80 agencies operating over 8000 energy-consuming facilities and since DMME's resources are limited, it is interested in being able to determine: (1) on which agencies to focus; (2) specific facilities on which to focus within each high-priority agency; and (3) irrespective of agency,which facilities are the most promising potential candidates for solar. The computer processing system described in this paper computes numerical 'solar attractiveness' scores for the state's agencies and the individual facilities using the energy use and cost data in the FASER system database and the state's and NREL's experience in implementing, testing, and evaluating solar water heatingsystems in commercial and government facilities.