Starting next month, California’s state capital campus, a complex of 23 buildings encompassing 5.5 million sq ft, will be cooled by water chilled in a 4.25-million-gal thermal-energy storage tank. The 140-ft-tall metal cone is the final phase of a $181-million central-plant replacement on course to receive the second-highest ranking—LEED Gold—of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green-building rating system.
The 78,000-sq-ft California central plant is the largest thermal-energy storage district and heating and cooling facility in the western U.S., says Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the state’s Dept. of General Services.