Electrifying High-Efficiency Future Communities: Impact on Energy, Emissions, and Grid
To combat climate change and meet decarbonization goals, the building sector is improving energy efficiency and electrifying end uses to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels. All-electric buildings are becoming a trend among new constructions, introducing opportunities for decarbonization but a...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2022-06-01
|
| Series: | Advances in Applied Energy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666792422000130 |
| _version_ | 1818204816222978048 |
|---|---|
| author | Jing Wang Rawad El Kontar Xin Jin Jennifer King |
| author_facet | Jing Wang Rawad El Kontar Xin Jin Jennifer King |
| author_sort | Jing Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | To combat climate change and meet decarbonization goals, the building sector is improving energy efficiency and electrifying end uses to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels. All-electric buildings are becoming a trend among new constructions, introducing opportunities for decarbonization but also technical challenges and research gaps. For instance, further investigation is needed to understand how the adoption of energy efficiency measures (EEMs) and distributed energy resources (DERs) in all-electric communities would affect energy consumption, carbon emissions, and grid planning. This paper presents a case study of a mixed-use, all-electric community located in Denver, Colorado. We use URBANopt™, a physics-based urban energy modeling platform to model the community and then evaluate the impact of EEMs and DERs (i.e., photovoltaics [PV], electric vehicles [EVs], and batteries) on the community’s energy usage, carbon emissions, and peak demand. The results show that adding EEMs and PV led to both energy consumption and carbon emissions reductions across all building types. However, we saw fairly limited impact of EEMs and PV on buildings’ peak demand in our case. Additionally, due to overnight EV charging activities and higher grid carbon intensity at night, the carbon emissions in multifamily buildings have a noticeable increase compared to scenarios without vehicles. Finally, the addition of batteries helped reduce peak demand by 11%–29%. The modeling workflow and evaluation methods can be applied to similar communities to evaluate their performance and the effect of integrating EEMs and DERs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T03:47:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b0240c44676b4a75a6937d4a8a4bfe5b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2666-7924 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T03:47:15Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Advances in Applied Energy |
| spelling | doaj.art-b0240c44676b4a75a6937d4a8a4bfe5b2022-12-22T00:39:29ZengElsevierAdvances in Applied Energy2666-79242022-06-016100095Electrifying High-Efficiency Future Communities: Impact on Energy, Emissions, and GridJing Wang0Rawad El Kontar1Xin Jin2Jennifer King3National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO, 80401, United StatesNational Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO, 80401, United StatesCorresponding author.; National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO, 80401, United StatesNational Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO, 80401, United StatesTo combat climate change and meet decarbonization goals, the building sector is improving energy efficiency and electrifying end uses to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuels. All-electric buildings are becoming a trend among new constructions, introducing opportunities for decarbonization but also technical challenges and research gaps. For instance, further investigation is needed to understand how the adoption of energy efficiency measures (EEMs) and distributed energy resources (DERs) in all-electric communities would affect energy consumption, carbon emissions, and grid planning. This paper presents a case study of a mixed-use, all-electric community located in Denver, Colorado. We use URBANopt™, a physics-based urban energy modeling platform to model the community and then evaluate the impact of EEMs and DERs (i.e., photovoltaics [PV], electric vehicles [EVs], and batteries) on the community’s energy usage, carbon emissions, and peak demand. The results show that adding EEMs and PV led to both energy consumption and carbon emissions reductions across all building types. However, we saw fairly limited impact of EEMs and PV on buildings’ peak demand in our case. Additionally, due to overnight EV charging activities and higher grid carbon intensity at night, the carbon emissions in multifamily buildings have a noticeable increase compared to scenarios without vehicles. Finally, the addition of batteries helped reduce peak demand by 11%–29%. The modeling workflow and evaluation methods can be applied to similar communities to evaluate their performance and the effect of integrating EEMs and DERs.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666792422000130All-electric communityElectric vehiclesEnergy efficiency measuresDistributed energy resourcesBuilding-to-grid integrationNet-zero energy |
| spellingShingle | Jing Wang Rawad El Kontar Xin Jin Jennifer King Electrifying High-Efficiency Future Communities: Impact on Energy, Emissions, and Grid Advances in Applied Energy All-electric community Electric vehicles Energy efficiency measures Distributed energy resources Building-to-grid integration Net-zero energy |
| title | Electrifying High-Efficiency Future Communities: Impact on Energy, Emissions, and Grid |
| title_full | Electrifying High-Efficiency Future Communities: Impact on Energy, Emissions, and Grid |
| title_fullStr | Electrifying High-Efficiency Future Communities: Impact on Energy, Emissions, and Grid |
| title_full_unstemmed | Electrifying High-Efficiency Future Communities: Impact on Energy, Emissions, and Grid |
| title_short | Electrifying High-Efficiency Future Communities: Impact on Energy, Emissions, and Grid |
| title_sort | electrifying high efficiency future communities impact on energy emissions and grid |
| topic | All-electric community Electric vehicles Energy efficiency measures Distributed energy resources Building-to-grid integration Net-zero energy |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666792422000130 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jingwang electrifyinghighefficiencyfuturecommunitiesimpactonenergyemissionsandgrid AT rawadelkontar electrifyinghighefficiencyfuturecommunitiesimpactonenergyemissionsandgrid AT xinjin electrifyinghighefficiencyfuturecommunitiesimpactonenergyemissionsandgrid AT jenniferking electrifyinghighefficiencyfuturecommunitiesimpactonenergyemissionsandgrid |