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Existing Public Capital Improvement Project (CIP)
From the onset of 1997, Orange County decided to focus on improving the state of its public schools prior to the existing state of the constituent facilities. In this respect, the county’s Public Schools committed towards a considerably ambitious project that would alter the list of significant public works carried out by the county leadership on a grand scale. Accordingly, Orange County concentrated on distributing millions of dollars for the objective of establishing novel schools, repairing, modifying, and extending the existing facilities. Ever since, the county has injected over $350 million as per its capital improvement project in order to correct the life safety inefficiencies at learning institutions throughout the respective county (URS). In addition, the CIP aimed at the eradication of modular and portable classrooms, which leaked and shifted in events characterized by inclement weather and unforeseeable environmental circumstances.
However, in order to ensure that the project achieves sustainable improvements for the buildings considerably, one of the ideas that the CIP can implement involves the implementation of solar energy. In an effort to abide by green building standards, the application of solar panels while renovating older and current education facilities can assist the county in satisfying eco-friendly standards, and simultaneously, avoid the strenuous expenditure involved in reimbursing electricity costs. An illustration of the benefit of solar is evident in Boston, whereby solar power schemes aided the municipality in energy production, even while the power grid was not operational. Nonetheless, in order to ensure that the idea is implemented successfully, it is imperative to ensure that it relates to accomplishing the credit for the LEED v4 system. In this respect, implementation of solar panels can satisfy the credit, Energy and Atmosphere, which rewards points to buildings that apply renewable energy that produces 500 kWh on site (LEED 24).
Works Cited
“LEED v4 User Guide.” 2013. PDF file.
URS. “Orange County Public Schools Capital Improvement Program.” URS. n. d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. <http://www.urs.com/projects/orange-county-public-schools-capital-improvement-program/>