Researchers at the NREL have created a new, meticulously researched data set that details how buildings do -- and could -- use energy.
, including 75% of all electricity use and 35% of the nation’s carbon emissions. Although today’s decarbonization efforts often focus on renewable electricity or electric vehicles, decarbonizing the building stock is also essential.
Crucially, the data set provides credible answers to some of the questions and unknowns surrounding building decarbonization. Although awareness of the importance of buildings in decarbonization is growing, entities involved in updating existing buildings often do not have the information they need to make informed decisions. And if stakeholders cannot find credible answers to their questions, they often conclude that the only safe option is to do nothing.
“On the commercial side, we had to go through a painstaking process of trying to map the meter data to buildings, and there were many technical steps involved in that,” said Andrew Parker, a researcher in NREL’s Commercial Buildings Research Group and a key member of the project. NREL partnered with 42 organizations to gain access to building and energy usage data for specific building types, like schools. This allowed the team to further refine building characteristics and load profiles.
“Previously, the entities that could benefit from this data had to use simplified approaches, or data that was old, limited, or from another location,” Present said. “Our data may not be perfect, but it is useful—it is so much better than what most people had available.
Anthony Fryer, director of energy conservation and optimization for the Minnesota Department of Commerce, said, “These data have the potential to enable Minnesota utilities to target electrification initiatives to the end uses most likely to benefit from these services. They also enable Minnesota to better estimate projected savings and benefits of such measures, which will enhance future programs.
“If you’re a city or a utility and you’re making decisions, you don’t care about the national energy consumption—you only care about the part of the country that you’re in, or have jurisdiction over,” Parker said. “And as renewables and other time-varying resources come on to the grid more and more, when you use energy also matters.”
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