Seattle City Light superintendent Jorge Carrasco presented Port of Seattle commissioners with a $408,275 rebate award check today for energy efficiency measures built into the rental car facility at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The rental car facility at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Photo courtesy of Port of Seattle/Don Wilson
Seattle City Light superintendent Jorge Carrasco presented Port of Seattle commissioners with a $408,275 rebate award check today for energy efficiency measures built into the rental car facility at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
“Doing more with less electricity through efficiency is a win for everyone,” Carrasco said. “It lowers the long term cost of operations for our customers, it reduces our impact on the environment and it reduces the pressure on City Light to obtain new, more expensive energy resources, which helps to keep our rates among the lowest in the country.”
“I commend the Port for building a rental car facility that is a model of energy efficiency,” he said.
Seattle City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco presents the energy efficiency incentives check to the Port of Seattle Commissioners and Port CEO Tay Yoshitani.
The Port and City Light began collaborating in 2006 to design a facility that incorporates energy efficient lighting with controls that automatically turn off unneeded lighting during daylight hours, an efficient electrical transformer, and efficient cooling equipment. The facility also takes advantage of area winds, using natural ventilation to reduce the need for fans to move car exhaust out of the area.
Those measures will reduce the rental car facility’s electricity use by more than 1.5 million kilowatt-hours each year and lower the Port’s electricity bills by about $99,000 annually. That’s enough energy to power 167 typical Seattle homes for a year.
Energy efficient lighting with controls was used extensively at the rental car facility.
“This rebate highlights the Port’s Century Agenda goal to be the greenest and most energy efficient port in North America,” said Port of Seattle Commission President Tom Albro. “Finding the creative ways to decrease energy need through conservation is a core principle for the port now and in the future. The Rental Car Facility is a shining example of the work of everyone involved in the project.”
On peak days, the five-story rental car facility will process 12,000 to 14,000 rental cars. The US Green Building Council certified the facility LEED Silver. It is the largest rental car facility to achieve that status from the US Green Building Council.
Sea-Tac International Airport’s rental car facility is the largest in the nation to achieve LEED Silver status.
Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to nearly 1 million Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.