Mountain View Electric Association hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony June 23 to commemorate the opening of its new building. Board members, employees and community members were part of the event.Rod Hilt, information systems/facilities coordinator, said the nonprofit electric cooperative has invested in several green technology features throughout the building, such as an application on employees’ computers to control lights; an occupancy sensor that senses a presence in a specific space and dims if the area is unoccupied; and shelf lights designed to reflect light off the ceiling, while blocking direct light in the winter.They also looked at heating and cooling the building with efficient systems. “We have 80 (geothermal) wells out here in the field, and we’re using that to transfer heat into and out of the building as we need it,” Hilt said. “In the building, there are 54 separate heat pumps for the different areas in the offices.”Construction on the new building began in June 2008. It adds 89,000 square feet to the site; 46,000 square feet of that is designated as office space. MVEA outgrew the original building, constructed in 1979. The two buildings will eventually be connected. Colorado Springs-based LKA Partners Inc. is the architect and engineering company, and WO Danielson Construction Co. Ltd., based in Englewood, Colo., is the general contractor for the project.To demonstrate the benefits of wind and solar energies, MVEA installed a solar array that produces about 2,000 watts (2 kWh) and a wind turbine that produces about 1,800 watts (1.8 kWh). “These are pretty standard, like a minimum size for a residential home is what we’re looking at,” said MVEA Manager Darryl Edwards.The wind turbine reaches 40 feet at the top of the blade, which was El Paso County’s regulation for height when the turbine was installed. In 2009, the county has doubled the height regulation to an 80-foot tower. MVEA will soon replace the current turbine with a 60-foot tower that will be placed further north of the solar array to capture optimal wind energy. “That should get us high enough above this building to where we get some real steady speeds and get some good data for what the wind production is here at this particular site,” Edwards said. The new turbine will be installed in July.The purpose of the demonstration area is to educate school groups, families and others about the technology, he said. “We’re in the business of trying to make the best practice out of this with our building being here, and then keeping it all in an area where we can do educational tours.” Edwards said.To further involve the public in the solar and wind technologies, a monitor is located inside the building. The monitor is connected to the solar array and wind turbine and gathers information about the amount of energy they produce. Edwards said anyone interested in tracking the information can visit the MVEA Web site at www.mvea.org to review the history of the system’s energy output. He said the monitor is “another education piece to really see what these systems actually do over a year’s period of time.”The MVEA central office is located in Limon. The energy company’s service territory covers 5,000 square miles.
