In 2013, the Exploratorium’s home on Pier 15 in San Francisco was awarded a LEED® Platinum rating for Building Design and Construction (BD+C). Since then, we’ve won numerous awards for maintaining the highest standards of sustainable architecture and design, striving to become the largest net-zero energy use museum in the U.S., and for our ability to turn our historic sustainable building into a chance for the public to engage with sustainable building systems. Located at the edge of downtown with ample access to public transportation, even the journey to the Exploratorium is a step forward in reducing our carbon footprint.
ENERGY & SOLAR
- The Exploratorium's goal is to achieve net-zero energy operation and become the largest museum in the U.S to do so. To put it simply, we intend to generate the same amount of power we use.
- While other museums have high-efficiency solar power systems on their roofs, ours is one of the largest on a cultural institution in the world, and the only one helping a museum achieve net-zero energy goal!
- Our SunPower solar power system uses 5,874 solar panels and takes up 78,712 sq. ft. of roof space. That’s 1.36 football fields, or over 28 tennis courts!
- We harvest over 2 million kWh per year from the sun: this covers approximately 75% of all energy used at Pier 15 (including our restaurant, store, building systems, and exhibits). As technology advances and we learn to use less energy, we move ever closer to achieving our net-zero energy goal.
- Over the 30-year life of our SunPower solar system, we’ll avoid creating 49,109 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. All that CO2 is equivalent to removing 9,540 cars on California’s highways for one year.
- There are actually two solar energy systems on our roof. The smaller system sends electricity directly to our building, and the other sends generated energy back to the grid, which distributes it to buildings all over San Francisco. We’re literally powering the city (both with our creativity and our electricity).
- Because the Exploratorium is easily accessible by public transportation, we’re helping visitors reduce their own carbon footprint while learning about our own building systems.
HEATING & COOLING
- Our location over San Francisco Bay is good for more than stunning views. Our building’s HVAC system circulates bay water through two titanium heat exchangers, saving us water and energy.
- The bay water fluctuates between 50°F and 66°F seasonally and is used as a heat source and heat sink to efficiently produce hot and chilled water for the building’s radiant slab. This also eliminates the need for cooling towers.
- We used high-performance, lined, and fritted glass in the construction of our covered walkway and in the Fisher Bay Observatory. This glass not only limits heat gain, but it provides a bird-friendly façade as well.
WATER
- Using bay water to heat and cool the building eliminates the need for evaporative cooling towers for heat rejection. This saves us an annual 2 Million gallons of water (just over 3 Olympic size swimming pools), which would otherwise be lost to evaporation.
- Inside the building, we use high-efficiency, tankless electric water heaters. This reduces the need to run faucets while water heats, saving both water and energy.
- We use water-efficient plumbing technologies throughout the building. Toilets equipped with dual-flush handles, waterless urinals, and sinks with low-flow, sensor-operated faucets all help us reduce water consumption by 30%.
- The exterior hardscape design of Pier 15 eliminates the need for watering outdoor plants.
- Rainwater falling onto the Exploratorium’s roof is captured and stored in two cisterns, holding around 23,000 gallons at a time (that’s 368,000 glasses of water). It’s then filtered and used for flushing toilets. All other roof runoff is filtered before being returned to the bay, reducing pollutants in our stormwater runoff.
