Data shows that despite incentives and subsidies the current adoption rate of energy-saving retrofits is 1 percent. That won’t be enough to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Christoph Reinhart, a professor in the Department of Architecture and director of the Building Technology Program says, “In nearly all cases, cities have no clear plan for how they’re going to reach their goal.” This is where Reinhart and his team in the MIT Sustainable Design Lab come in. Through a publicly accessible website, the team provides help for building owners and lawmakers interested in the benefits of energy efficiency measures. “The website — UBEM.io — provides step-by-step instructions and all the simulation tools that a team will need to perform an analysis,” says Reinhart. After working with eight different cities around the world, the lessons they learned might surprise you.
- Hot water is driving carbon emissions in building energy use.
- For all-electric buildings to make a real difference, we need a carbon-free grid.
- One-size-does-not-fit-all. Each city involved presented unique results.
Heat pumps and ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) technology is rapidly advancing to meet the challenge. "Simply put, a properly selected and installed heat pump system will effectively heat a home, even in very cold temperatures," said Roderick Jackson, laboratory program manager for building technologies research at NREL. "We are starting to see manufacturers bring heat pump technologies to markets with much higher operating efficiencies than we have historically seen,” said Jackson. Developer, Tom Engel isn’t convinced it’s the most cost-effective route, “In the spring and the fall, [a GSHP] is very effective for heating and very economical. In the middle of winter, temperatures get freezing. It’s still used, but it’s supplemental, and the supplemental heat that it requires is very expensive,” said Engel. The International Energy Agency reported that global sales of heat pumps grew 11 percent in 2022, which was the second straight year of double-digit growth.
Partnerships between research teams and utility companies could provide direction to accelerate the clean energy transition. “Working with a utility like Xcel, which offers rebates for cold climate heat pumps, creates a feedback loop to better understand in real time how heat pump systems are installed and what happens as more are introduced to the grid before they are deployed at scale," Jon Winkler, senior engineer at NREL.
What else is your utility doing to promote building electrification and energy-savings?