Abstract
We examine the energy use impacts of energy efficiency and solar PV projects financed by residential property assessed clean energy (R-PACE) programs in California. We leverage household-level interval meter data to apply normalized metered energy consumption (NMEC) methods at significant scale—more than 25,000 electric meters and more than 15,000 gas meters. We develop a comparison group to account for non-project-related changes in usage. The projects include homes that replaced existing HVAC equipment with higher-efficiency units and homes that installed central heating or air conditioning equipment for the first time. We have limited information on pre-project household equipment stock so we develop a method to infer new installations. We find that projects that installed energy efficiency technologies reduce electricity consumption by approximately 3% and gas consumption by approximately 3.5% on average. When we remove homes that installed new cooling and heating equipment for the first time, savings rise to approximately 5% for electricity and approximately 6% for gas. Given the California climate and the results of an existing study of similar California projects, these results are in line with expectations. Solar PV projects produce electricity that offsets approximately 69% of household electricity consumption on average. We estimate that California R-PACE projects installed through the end of 2019 produce annual reductions in grid-tied electricity consumption of 506 GWh (equivalent to the electricity consumption of approximately 74,000 California households) and gas consumption reductions of 2 million therms (equivalent to the gas consumption of approximately 4700 California households) in a typical weather year.
Highlights
Achieving significant improvements in the energy efficiency of existing U.S residential buildings is a major challenge as service providers must often overcome a variety of barriers
The energy use impacts presented here reflect the difference in usage changes between the matched residential property assessed clean energy (R-Property assessed clean energy (PACE)) and comparison group
Potential savings from space conditioning-related energy efficiency measures are lower in California, both in absolute and percentage terms, than they would be in the country as a whole
Summary
Achieving significant improvements in the energy efficiency of existing U.S residential buildings is a major challenge as service providers (e.g., contractors, architects, and engineers) must often overcome a variety of barriers. Some energy efficiency investments have “higher first costs” compared to conventional measures [1,2]. Examples in the residential market include high-efficiency windows, wall or floor insulation, or a more efficient heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system. These investments deliver energy cost savings and other benefits (e.g., improved comfort and reduced maintenance expenses), these benefits are realized over long time periods (10–25 years) given the effective useful life of high-efficiency equipment and envelope measures. Solar PV systems are expensive up front and yield energy cost savings over long time frames. Financing offers an opportunity to better align the timeline of customer costs with energy cost savings for energy efficiency and solar PV projects, enhancing the affordability and attractiveness of these projects
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