Asheville – Scott Metcalf, the project manager for Buncombe County’s General Services Department, recently provided the commissioners with an update on the new fleet building that will be constructed on Riverside Drive in Woodfin. The contract was awarded to Hickory Construction on the second round of bidding.
Add-Ons and Greenwash Features
The bid priced a basic facility at $8,054,000, and it offered add-ons cafeteria-style. These included a solar roof for $487,000, a mezzanine storage area for $239,000, a whole-building generator for $503,000, and a shed for large trailers for $170,000. No vote was taken, but Commissioner Terri Wells expressed support for building a facility with all of the above.
Greenwash features included with the base plan were three dual charging stations for electric vehicles, high-efficiency HVAC equipment that used electric resistance heating instead of natural gas, and windows compliant with the International Green Construction Code Table E101.4.
Rooftop Solar System and Generator Capacity
Providing more information on some of the add-ons, Metcalf shared that the rooftop solar system would be the second-largest owned by the county, topped only by the installation planned for the Health and Human Services parking deck. The generator would have the capacity to run everything in the building continuously for 48 hours.
Funding and Considerations
Given the desire to have a mezzanine storage area, it was decided to have a high ceiling in the remainder of the facility. This is because the larger building would cost much less than a smaller one with a two-tier roof.
The building was going to be funded with $7,748,907 from the county’s capital improvement plan, but the low bid came in at $9,453,000, so the difference will be debt-financed. One reason for the increase was general inflation. The Caldwell Banker Richard Ellis Construction Cost Index rose 11.5% in 2021 and another 14.5% in 2022.
Electricity Usage and Solar Payback
Another reason was the decision to use only electricity to run the facility. Metcalf explained that it had a higher upfront cost, but it would reduce the building’s carbon footprint. The solar panels were expected to pay for themselves in 11–14 years.
Impact and Future Plans
Moving all fleet operations into a single building would allow the county to repurpose its building on McCormick Place for a regional EMS base, avail more room at the Transfer Station to improve customer experience, and maintain a Parks and Recreation building at SportsPark. With the commissioners’ approval, construction could start as early as this fall.
Solar System Analysis and Battery Storage
Chair Brownie Newman said Duke Energy would not allow the county to build a solar system that generated more power than was necessary to run the facility at peak demand. He asked if anybody had run the analysis to make sure the design was compliant, and the county’s sustainability officer, Jeremiah LeRoy, replied that the design was rated to cover 90% of peak demand.
Commissioner Parker Sloan asked if the cost estimates included 30% tax credits for the solar system, and Newman replied that the numbers presented represented only the cost of construction and did not consider any rebates or credits for which the county might later apply.
Newman next asked if the design contemplated any battery storage. At a recent meeting of the Environmental and Energy Stewardship Subcommittee, staff spoke about retrofitting some of the county’s buildings with solar and battery storage. Newman expected the commissioners would soon hear a presentation on their findings because the results were “pleasantly surprising.”
LeRoy replied that storage had been considered. Costs outweighed benefits for a battery that would fully back up electricity supplied by the grid. However, the prospects would probably be very good for a battery that only handled “demand offset, energy arbitrage, or peak shifting.” Therefore, the facility had been added to the analysis of which Newman had spoken.
Debating the Generator Size and Meeting Space
Newman thought the generator was excessive. He asked if the buildings being replaced had full backups and was told no. Newman understood that some buildings, like the hospital and the 911 call center, needed a lot of redundancy because they “could never be down.” However, preventing the loss of power in a garage for half a day or a day didn’t appear to justify the investment.
The facility did house five spare ambulances, which, like other emergency vehicles that may need repairs, carry equipment that must be plugged in all the time, but Newman argued that could be managed with a smaller generator. He was then told that the building would have a lot of meeting space that other departments could use during natural disasters.
Clearing the Roads and Conclusion
County Manager Avril Pinder had the last word. She said in the event of a natural disaster, the people who would be working out of that building were the ones who would have to clear the roads before other county employees could come to work.