The Presidio Trust conserves energy through technological innovations and educational outreach.

Building and Infrastructure Upgrades

When the Presidio Trust rehabilitates a building, it upgrades lighting, heating, and other systems. Efforts to maximize day-lighting and natural ventilation not only save energy, but complement historic preservation goals. Highly efficient EnergyStar appliances replace older models in park homes. Compact fluorescent lights are used in place of less efficient incandescent bulbs. Occupancy sensors and automatic controls help optimize energy use and eliminate electricity waste. Highly-efficient package boilers are used in many buildings. Upgrades to utilities infrastructure like high voltage lines and transformers improve the efficiency and reliability of power.

Summer Initiative Project

The Trust partnered with the California Public Utilities Commission to implement the “Presidio Summer Initiative Program” to retrofit both residential and non-residential buildings with energy efficient lighting, controls, and energy management systems. Thousands of light bulbs were replaced in homes, and educational outreach was conducted with residents and employees. According to the final project report, more than a million kilowatt/hours are saved each year.

Photovoltaics

The Presidio’s Thoreau Center for Sustainability features the first building-integrated solar array on an historic government building. Commensurate with the preservation of the building’s historic fabric, this system was designed right into the skylights in the building entryway. The Presidio Trust is using photovoltaics on streetlights, remote kiosks, and way-finding signs, providing illumination while avoiding the need for digging and trenching to lay underground conduit and cables.

Education and Outreach

Park employees have been informed about energy conservation and are periodically asked to power down during critical peak energy-use times. As lighting retrofits are completed in Presidio homes, residents are educated about energy conservation. A long term-effort of the Trust Utilities department has been to individually meter Presidio buildings and units for utility usage. Passing direct costs for resource use to the user is the best conservation incentive yet. Through all of these efforts, the Presidio has significantly reduced energy use and was awarded with a Federal Energy and Water Management award from the U.S. Department of Energy.