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Monday, June 11, 2012

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The Daily News

BUSINESS

Don Bryan/The Daily News

Matt Lynn, deputy project director of Atlantic Marine Corps Communities, talks about the solar panels on the first home on a mainland Marine Corps installation that is net zero energy. It is located in Midway Park housing aboard Camp Lejeune.

GOING GREEN
First stateside USMC zero-energy home is at Lejeune
By AMBERLY POZZI
Daily News Staff

the Camp Lejeune neighborhood. The design of the IDWAY PARK home also helps supalready meets port commitment to the criteria for the Obama AdminisLEED homes by havtrations Better Building solar thermal panings Challenge, in els, which heat water partnership with the using solar energy inU.S. Department of stead of electricity, on Energy which they bethe homes there. Now it gan last year, and crealso houses the first net ated a program that zero energy and Lead- would create jobs, save ership and Energy En- money, and reduce our vironmental Design countrys dependence (LEED) platinum home on foreign oil, accordon a stateside Marine ing to a press release Corps base. from AMCC. Atlantic Marine In order for the home Corps Communito receive the net zero ties (AMCC) and a energy level, AMCC Lend Lease Commupartnered with FLS nity, in partnership Energy, Inc, which prowith the Department vided a 6.7-kilowatt of the Navy, recentrooftop photovoltaic arly announced the maray which would conjor achievement at vert sunlight into elec-

tricity for the home. According to Matt Lynn, the deputy project manager of AMCC, the electricity generated from these roof mounted photovoltaic solar panels is first sent directly through an electrical grid before being sent through the home, which has allowed them to monitor the amount of electricity being generated by the new panels. We have a home that produces more energy than it consumes, said Lynn. From the data collected thus far, the home functions on 54-percent less energy than a home of comparable size constructed using todays building standards, according to a press release from

AMCC. Other utilities savings within the home include a reduction in water consumption of 27 percent and an estimated savings of 7,300 gallons of hot water for the home. They also calculated that the energy savings of this home is equal to diverting 16 tons of carbon dioxide being released into the environment each year or the same amount of greenhouse gases achieved from recycling 5.4 tons of waste annually, according to the press release. Some of the upgrades to the home included higher rated insulation in the walls

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