FINANCE AND ECONOMICS OF NET ZERO ENERGY K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN FLORIDA By HAMED HAKIM A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Hamed Hakim To my precious Mom and Dad, and my lovely Sisters ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Charles J. Kibert for his continuous support, his patience, inspiration, and for his compassion in sharing his valuable knowledge and expertise during the years of my Master’s and Ph.D. studies. His guidance over the last six years helped me in many directions. His benevolence and kindness encourage me to portray a similar path for my future. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for this chapter of my life. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank the rest of my dissertation committee: Dr. Ravi Srinivasan, Dr. James G. Sullivan, and Dr. David T. Brown, for their insightful comments and encouragement, and also for the hard questions which incented me to widen my research from various perspectives. I thank my incredible Powell Center fellows for stimulating a teamwork culture, initiating discussions, for the endless supports, and for motivating each of us in pursuing our ambitious goals. I am grateful to be a member of the Powell Center family! Last but not least, I would like to thank my precious family who filled me with indefinite love and support throughout my years at University of Florida. Shohreh and Akbar, my parents, Haleh and Nahal, my sisters, and Sasan, my brother in law have all mentally, emotionally, and spiritually helped me in my accomplishments. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 8 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 11 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... 13 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 16 Background ............................................................................................................. 16 Problem Statement ................................................................................................. 17 Research Objectives ............................................................................................... 19 Scope and Limitations............................................................................................. 20 Organization of the Study ....................................................................................... 21 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................................................... 23 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 23 Net Zero Energy Concept and Definition ................................................................ 24 Energy Life-Cycle Perspective ......................................................................... 27 Net Zero Energy Targets .................................................................................. 28 Existing Net Zero Energy Buildings ........................................................................ 31 The Concept of Green Schools ............................................................................... 35 Green Schools .................................................................................................. 35 The School of the 21st Century ......................................................................... 37 Net Zero Energy Schools ........................................................................................ 40 Net Zero Energy School Definition ................................................................... 40 Net Zero Energy Ready Schools ...................................................................... 41 The State of the Art of NZE Schools ....................................................................... 43 Viable Renewable Energy Resources .................................................................... 47 The Overview of Energy Production and Consumption in Florida .................... 47 Non-renewable resources .......................................................................... 47 Renewable resources ................................................................................ 48 Renewable Energy Resources Available for Floridan NZE Buildings ............... 49 Feasibility of NZE .................................................................................................... 55 Technical Feasibility of NZE ............................................................................. 55 Envelope .................................................................................................... 59 Fenestration and infiltration ........................................................................ 60 Electric lighting ........................................................................................... 60 5 Plug and process loads .............................................................................. 62 Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning ................................................... 62 Service water heating ................................................................................ 64 Energy modeling results ............................................................................ 64 Economic Feasibility of NZE ............................................................................. 66 Net Zero Energy Building Cost Premiums ........................................................ 71 Financing Mechanisms ..................................................................................... 76 Monetary rebates and incentives ............................................................... 78 Equity financing .......................................................................................... 80 Debt financing ............................................................................................ 80 Third party financing .................................................................................. 82 Florida Schools Finance and Budgeting ................................................................. 87 Review of Florida’s Cost per Student Station ................................................... 89 3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 95 Technical Assumptions ........................................................................................... 99 Building Prototypes .......................................................................................... 99 Reference K-12 school prototype ............................................................... 99 NZE K-12 school building......................................................................... 101 Solar PV System, Technical Assumptions...................................................... 102 Financing Assumptions ......................................................................................... 103 Economic Assumptions ......................................................................................... 104 Term of LCC ................................................................................................... 104 General Inflation Rate .................................................................................... 104 Energy Escalation Rate .................................................................................. 104 Discount Rate ................................................................................................. 106 Energy Rates .................................................................................................. 107 Construction Costs ......................................................................................... 107 PV System Costs ........................................................................................... 108 Operation and Maintenance Costs ................................................................. 109 4 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS .................................................................................. 110 Outline .................................................................................................................. 110 Part I: Analysis Results ......................................................................................... 111 Part II: Degradation Scenarios .............................................................................. 115 Whole Building Degradation ........................................................................... 117 Mechanical components .......................................................................... 118 Envelope .................................................................................................. 120 Building components useful life ...............................................................