Zero Net Energy – October 20, 2022

An energy rule of thumb is one third of energy goes to buildings, one third goes to industry, one third goes to transportation. The technology is certainly available to reduce the energy that goes to buildings drastically, nearly to zero even in retrofitting existing ones. If we got serious about it, we could do quite a lot to reduce that third of all energy that goes to heat, cool, and power buildings.

Unfortunately, it seems even with a carbon war going on in the Ukraine affecting the world, we didn’t focus on this readily available tactic which means there will be a lot of unnecessary suffering this winter and, probably, winters to come.

According to this carbon countdown clock (https://www.mcc-berlin.net/fileadmin/data/clock/carbon_clock.htm), at the current rate, the most CO2 we can emit to stay below 1.5ºC rise is 400 Gt, starting from 2020, and that carbon budget will be used up by about July/August 2029.

We have 284 Gts left as I write.

Becoming and remaining a net zero office building
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/opinion/energy-office-buildings-net-zero-climate.html

Distributed battery systems for utilities:
Vermont’s Green Mountain Power
https://greenmountainpower.com/news/gmp-expands-battery-options-for-customers/
California’s PG&E
https://electrek.co/2022/08/18/teslas-virtual-power-plant-first-event-helping-grid-future/
Utah’s Rocky Mountain Power (and Idaho)
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/batteries/in-utah-thousands-of-homes-feed-the-grid-stored-solar-power

Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands building designed to generate more energy than it consumes
https://www.unstudio.com/en/page/13592/echo-tu-delft
https://inhabitat.com/echo-by-unstudio-generates-more-energy-than-it-uses/

Sunnova wants to build solar/battery neighborhoods that don’t connect to the grid
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/business/energy-environment/sunnova-off-grid-neighborhoods.html

5 net zero homes
https://inhabitat.com/5-sustainable-eco-homes-built-with-style/

Team Zero helps homeowners, builders, and industry professionals work towards a Zero Energy future.
https://teamzero.org/gateway-to-zero/

Renovating a 100 year old Craftsman home to net zero
https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/09/14/net-zero-home-renovation-washington/

URB – Net zero community for 100,000 in United Arab Emirates
https://urb.ae
https://inhabitat.com/urban-design-of-the-worlds-largest-net-zero-community/

The Line – first development in Neom, a planned $500 billion city for an anticipated population of 9 million
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Line,_Saudi_Arabia

My Biggest Regret Building a Net Zero Home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4aqEjIwBwo
hat tip to W David Stephenson

How will future climate impact the design and performance of nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs)?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544221027286
hat tip to cleantechnica.com

First NYC condo certified to passive house standards
https://gbdmagazine.com/bksk-architects/
https://inhabitat.com/first-condo-in-nyc-certified-by-passive-house-institute/