49 City Parks Receiving Energy Efficient Facility Upgrades Through Partnership

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49 City Parks Receiving Energy Efficient Facility Upgrades Through Partnership
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49 City parks receiving energy efficient facility upgrades through partnership

NORESCO contract aims to provide over $97 million in energy savings, improved park amenities over 20 years

O‘AHU -- Improving energy efficiency and benefiting our environment while saving taxpayer funds and generating green jobs - these are the goals of an energy-savings performance contract upgrading various park amenities at 49 City parks across O‘ahu.

Launching on National Energy Efficiency Day, this multi-year effort between the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and NORESCO will upgrade City park facilities island-wide beginning at Herbert K. Pililā‘au Community Park in Wai‘anae.

The overall effort is expected to yield a plethora of environmental, technical, health, safety, and social benefits to our island community by:

Improving the Park Experience

Increasing Efficiency

Benefiting the Environment

Stimulating the Economy

Addressing deferred maintenance to make facilities more publicly available

Enables park staff to address more maintenance issues

Upgraded, higher performance equipment resulting in less breakdowns

15,000 individual LED light upgrades

1,000 efficient plumbing fixture installations

16 weather-based irrigation controls and two system replacements

14 on-site pool chlorine generation systems

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants

Minimizing water & electricity usage; supporting a more resilient energy grid and contributing to 10% water reduction

Use of less harmful pool chemicals through salt to chlorine generation

$97 million in taxpayer savings over 20 years ($3.4 million in the first year)

400 local jobs generated and supported by the various projects

Over 38% utility cost savings used to fund these park improvements

A combination of seven different energy conservation measures aim to achieve these goals at the 49 different City park locations. They include:

49 parks switching to interior & exterior LED lights
23 parks retrofitting or replacing plumbing fixtures
16 parks receiving weather-based irrigation controls
14 pools installing new pool pumps and on-site chlorine generation systems
10 parks improving their electrical transformers
9 parks upgrading to LED field lighting
2 beach parks eliminating major water leaks through extensive piping replacement

"With this effort we selected the projects and energy conservation measures which will deliver the greatest benefit to park users and the environment," said Laura H. Thielen, DPR Director. "For instance, the 14 pool pump upgrades will cut down on maintenance while making the pools safer for the public, staff, and environment through the use of less chlorine. This will make the pools more available for public use with pumps that work better, and make them more energy and water efficient, at a time when are aiming to cut down water usage by more than 10%. It's a win-win-win situation."

In an effort to help park users visualize and keep track of the various improvements as part of this project, an interactive online map has been launched and can be accessed by following this link: bit.ly/efficientparks. This website outlines the energy efficiency measures being implemented, the parks they are impacting, and any necessary closures while the measures are installed. Any significant park facility closures resulting from this effort will additionally be shared on DPR's social media platforms. Additionally, a news conference detailing this effort was live streamed on DPR's YouTube Channel, and can be viewed by following this link: bit.ly/efficentparkslive

"Our team at NORESCO is honored to collaborate with DPR and design a project that not only safeguards the longevity of our beloved parks, but also contributes to the sustainability and economic prosperity of our community," said Nicole Velasco, Senior Account Executive, NORESCO. "During construction, over 80% of the workforce will be Hawai‘i residents, and over 400 jobs will be generated by the project."

The improvements are scheduled to be installed in phases, with all energy upgrades operational by summer 2024.

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49 City Parks Receiving Energy Efficient Facility Upgrades Through Partnership

Kaimuki Hawaii
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