Historic Railroad Building Goes Net Zero

Virginia’s ARRA funded grant program for renewable energy projects helped fund the green renovation at the offices for Dovetail Construction.  This office building was originally a railway car repair barn for the Richmond and Chesapeake Bay Rail Company.  The Richmond and Chesapeake Bay Railway car barn is historically significant because it is one of two surviving buildings associated with the independent electric railway that provided service between the City of Richmond and the Town of Ashland from 1907 to 1938.

The building, originally constructed in 1907 and on the National Historic Registry, was renovated and retains its industrial character on the outside, while achieving a LEED certification for the innovative interior renovation techniques that essentially result in the structure becoming a building within a building.

The building is net zero energy—meaning that is producing more energy than it is consuming. Next to the building stand two ground-mount solar arrays with combined capacity of six kW, which produces more energy than the building consumes. The building also uses two new geothermal heat pumps for heating and cooling.

http://www.energyempowers.gov/post/LEED-building-virginia.aspx

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