Meeting A Community’s Emissions Reduction Targets Using Urban Building Energy Modeling

Abstract

Communities around the world are striving to meet aggressive emissions reduction targets in a short time frame. This paper lays out a six-step process using urban building energy modeling to identify a combination of building energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy deployment strategies that meet emissions goals. The process involves key decision makers in each municipality working with an energy modeling consultant to build up a model of their building stock and simulate various scenarios to meet the desired emissions reduction goals. Through a case study of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the six-step process is tested, and a concrete action plan to meet their 80% emissions reduction goals by 2050 is presented. The final recommended solution involves upgrading all residences in Oshkosh to ENERGY STAR certified home standards, installing cold climate heat pumps to displace fossil-fuel based heating, and deploying photovoltaics over an area equivalent to 50% of all rooftops. To aid in the final step of the process, implementation, the city-wide strategies were broken down into actions individual homeowners could take and what the cost and payback periods for these actions would be. In order to meet global emissions reduction goals, the six-step process presented in this paper will need to be carried out in communities around the world. The approach has been shown to be flexible and applicable to anywhere with emissions goals and access to building footprint and characteristic data.