Net Zero Projects

[Turner Simon]

Hello all,  

I have recently stumbled across a commercial project in Boston that was a "Net Zero Neighborhood".  In short this means that it produces more energy than it consumes.  This type of project I believe has tremendous merit and I would love to be more involved in pushing these initiatives forward.  Does any one know of people that are active in this space, or of other projects going on like the one I mentioned?  Thanks!

[Roy N.]

@Turner Simon

The term "Net Zero" indicates a building produces as much energy as it consumes - hence the net is zero.  If it produces more energy than it consumes then the building is Net positive - though Net Zero is too frequently used as a blanket term to cover both these cases.

Ironically, Net Zero does not automatically imply higher energy efficiency - there are several examples of commercial buildings with large expanses of flat roofs (i.e. warehouse) which are net positive, despite the building itself being horribly inefficient.

Building standards in North America are woefully outdated on matters of energy efficiency.  When building new, it is possible to design and build houses, and larger buildings, with a modest increase in up-front capital (10 - 15%) costs in comparison to the "normal/typical" minimum code build, which have resulting energy consumption 70%+ lower.   The barrier is not technological capability - there are 10s of thousands such buildings in Europe {search on Passivhaus} - but lack of will (economic and political).

Equally important, and potentially more difficult problem to solve, is retrofitting of existing building stock to achieve significant energy use reductions in a cost effective manner.  This is the area in which we working.  Our area - Maritime provinces - are filled with 100 - 200 yr old buildings.  When acquiring these old gems, or objective is to improve their energy efficiency by a minimum of 50% (40% on newer, post War houses) while updating the building to provide modern, healthy living spaces for our tenants.  Naturally, these improvements need to be carried out in a manner, and at a cost, that makes business sense.