A new $280 million community at the University of California, Davis -- already innovative for its plan to mix student and employee housing, retail space and a community college center -- is breaking ground in more ways than one, thanks to an almost $2 million grant from the California Energy Commission.

The planners for West Village, now under construction just west of the Davis campus, are now analyzing how to combine energy-saving measures with a sophisticated "smart grid" or network for generating, storing and distributing energy. The goal of the project is to create a great place to live and a "zero net energy" community with aggressive energy efficiency measures and on-site renewable resources to meet the community's annual energy demand.

"We are thrilled to be supporting this project with a university so committed to teaching, research and public service," Karen Douglas, chairman of the energy commission, said at a news conference on campus today (Aug. 10). "West Village promises to lead us toward a new state of the art for community-based energy strategy."

The university held the news conference to announce the ambitious project and mark the start of construction by first-phase developer West Village Community Partnership LCC.

Douglas said the energy commission is dedicated to improving the quality of life for Californians through energy research, development and demonstration projects. The $1,994,322 grant, made through the commission's Public Interest Energy Research Program, will help the university to analyze and design energy technologies and the smart grid that will integrate them.

UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef said the university is very grateful for the commission's support. "The project will be a showpiece of the university's commitment to sustainability and help advance energy solutions," he said.

"Those who are helping to create West Village, those who will call it home, all of us -- we can take great pride in how West Village will demonstrate the best in community living and stewardship of the environment."

The start of construction marks a milestone, said Vanderhoef, who is retiring Aug. 16 after 15 years as chancellor. Planning for West Village began in the 1990s as a way to provide affordable home ownership opportunities for faculty and staff and additional housing for students.

"My motivation," the chancellor said, "was to keep UC Davis a place where faculty, staff and students can continue to live locally and benefit from everything our campus has to offer."

The community

About 200 acres in all, the privately funded development is located on campus land west of Highway 113 and south of Russell Boulevard. With a village square at its heart, the community will include affordable homes for faculty and staff and apartment-style housing for students.

In addition, the development will offer up to 45,000 square feet of commercial space and generous green space with bicycle and pedestrian paths connecting to the campus. Features will include a site for the Davis Center of Sacramento City College in the Los Rios Community College District -- the first community college center on a UC campus -- and sites for the Davis Joint Unified School District and a small day care or preschool facility.

West Village will be built in two phases. When completed, it will provide housing for an estimated 4,350 people: 475 new homes for faculty and staff and housing for 3,000 students. The developer has broken ground on the first 130-acre phase and plans to start building the village square and apartments for 600 students in spring 2010 for occupancy in fall 2011.

Balancing energy demand and sources

Planners estimate the baseline energy use for the first phase would be about 16,500 megawatt hours, including 11,100 for gas and 5,400 for electric. The new energy commission grant will fund analysis and design to minimize energy use by facilities and to offset demand with renewable power generated on site. One of the renewable energy technologies that will be evaluated is the biodigester developed at UC Davis.

Others include:

• energy-efficiency measures in building design (passive and active);
• demand response;
• distributed solar photovoltaic to create electricity from the sun;
• distributed solar thermal on homes to pre-heat water;
• biogas coupled with a fuel cell to generate electricity; and
• advanced energy storage using modern battery technologies.

Chevron Energy Solutions, which is leading the energy team, has helped shape the energy strategy. Local energy consulting firm Davis Energy Group also is collaborating on the project.

Jim Davis, president of Chevron Energy Solutions, said the company is pleased to be participating. "Chevron Energy Solutions applauds UC Davis and WVCP in their long-term, strategic goal to create a pathway to an innovative, affordable, zero net energy community,” he said.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company is also part of the team. Helen Burt, senior vice president and chief customer officer, said, "PG&E is proud to be a part of this innovative development that will be a real-world living laboratory to benefit consumers here, as well as throughout the state and country."

Collaboration and financing

West Village Community Partnership LLC is a joint venture of Carmel Partners of San Francisco and Urban Villages-Davis of Denver.

"West Village is the product of a remarkable collaboration of institutions and individuals," said Nolan Zail, senior vice president of development for Carmel Partners. "We share a vision to create a quality and sustainable living environment -- a wonderful place to live, learn, work and play."

While the campus retains ownership of the land, the developer will design, finance and construct the project and sell units to faculty and staff and rent housing to students.

Zail estimated that construction of the first phase will employ up to 300 people.

UC Davis is investing $14.5 million in roadways and utility infrastructure to connect West Village to campus systems; future residents will repay this investment over time.

The project draws on the nationally recognized expertise of the university, particularly from eight research centers including the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship, the UC Davis Water Efficiency Center, the UC Davis Energy Institute, the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center, the UC Cooperative Extension Livestock Air Quality Program; the UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center, the UC Davis California Lighting Technology Center and the UC Davis Biogas Energy Project.

Home ownership

West Village plans to sell homes at a starting price of about $400,000, below the market for comparable homes in Davis. The homes will be used as a major tool for recruiting and retaining top faculty and staff. Already, more than 1,500 people have expressed interest.

Homes will be allocated by lottery to four pools of employees, with 50 percent for recently recruited faculty and staff members and an additional 20 percent for employees with the lowest incomes.

For more information, visit http://www.westvillage.ucdavis.edu.

About UC Davis

For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science — and advanced degrees from six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.