The Role of Buildings in Load Management

There are many innovations that energy stakeholders are looking to make in order to balance carbon emissions. While changes to energy sources are important, it is important to utilize buildings too. Forbes has an article that lists out 10 ways that stakeholders can change buildings to reduce their carbon footprint. This can assist with load management. 

 

The article starts by urging people to have “a decarbonization roadmap” that sets out what levels the building owner wants to accomplish in terms of emission levels. From there, it is best to look at your energy use and carbon footprint. The article then advises building managers to follow something called “embodied carbon”, which looks at carbon from the use of materials and from construction. Much of this will be in the past, when the building was first built, but this is also important for future additions and maintenance to the building. It is also good to keep track of this for those aiming to have net-zero emissions, since the past carbon emissions will need to be offset. 

 

After taking all of these measurements, then it is best to focus on actually reducing the use of energy. This is where building modifications can be particularly useful to load management. From these measurements, there will be obvious instances of wasted energy, like maybe overuse of heat due to weak windows. Such modifications can be costly upfront but save energy long-term.

 

Another modification is to use renewable energy. There are agreements you can make with energy companies to buy long-term quantities of green energy. This can help you plan to reduce your use of fossil fuels. The article notes that it is important to utilize electric vehicles. Not having as many gas powered vehicles coming to and from a property can reduce the carbon emissions. The piece also encourages creating a microgrid through the use of renewable technology. The article closes by stating that while many people will complain that they do not have the capacity to make these changes, the technology does exist.

 

Changes in buildings are essential to reducing the unnecessary use of energy. But this piece’s reliance on electrifying parts could have the opposite effect. While electric vehicles show promise for the future, it is not clear that they save energy right now. This does not invalidate the whole article, instead it shows that there can be tension between reducing carbon emissions and saving energy.