3 Steps To A Zero Energy Commercial Building

 3 Steps to Achieving a ZNE Building

ZNE building design integrates a least-cost technology mix to achieve annual ZNE. The three key technology groups of ZNE building design are:

1. Efficiency
2. Smart
3. Onsite energy generation and storage

 

The design process is initially focused on reducing a building’s energy and environmental footprint, because, at today’s technology prices, these investments offer the most attractive and immediate return on investment. The final step is to add the higher investment-cost technologies of onsite renewable generation and storage to enable a building to achieve annual ZNE results.

Efficiency Is a “Low Hanging Fruit”

Efficiency is the “low hanging fruit” of ZNE building design. The cost to install efficient end-use equipment continues to fall at the same time grid prices rise. For example, installing higher efficiency fluorescent or LED lighting will typically generate 6- to 24-month financial payments through electric bill savings.

Today, the typical major retailer re-lamps its stores every two to four years to harvest additional cost savings and improve light quality. Walmart is pioneering a store design that will be 100 percent lit by LED lights. A business best practice for generating attractive and near-term cash flows is to have a process for identifying and investing in energy efficiency.

Commercial Buildings Are Joining the Information Age

Smart technologies will bring commercial buildings into the information age. Today’s automobiles are achieving record high MPG results, increased performance and enhanced driver experience through the incorporation of more than a hundred microprocessors. This is the future for your building.

Smart sensors integrated through predictive and proactive software systems will enable real-time building optimization to minimize cost, enhance occupant experience and reduce environmental impacts. The continued maturation of LED lighting technology will convert them into a communications path for hanging smart sensors throughout your smart buildings. This smart system will learn and then act on this learning to reduce energy and waste streams without negatively impacting the human experience. Intelligent buildings will price arbitrage to reduce costs and insure reliability across a range of energy options, including the purchase of grid electricity, onsite generation and the operation of battery systems.

The Investment Path for Achieving a Smart Building

Investing in smart-building technologies is similar to investing in computers. There’s a learning curve.  The next generation will have more intelligence and cost less. A business best practice is to prudently start now with these technologies and ride their maturation wave to the ultimate goal of a smart building.

Solar and Batteries in ZNE Building Design

Rooftop solar and battery storage technologies are the final leg of the smart building technology stool. Most roofs on commercial buildings generate zero value. The historic decline in solar panel prices now makes your roof a valuable piece of real estate. Rooftop solar is a very attractive financial opportunity, where the local utility allows net metering of electricity from a rooftop solar system to be netted against the building’s purchase of utility electricity.

But both solar panels and batteries are still the most capital-intensive investment in a ZNE building design. The good news is that growing economies of scale for these technologies are pushing their prices down. Today, a rooftop solar system combined with a smart battery system can be price competitively when grid prices are highest.

Solar Power Is Winning Commercial Building Customers

For a growing number of commercial customers, the future is now. The top 25 commercial users of solar power ranked by their number of installation are Walmart, Costco, Kohl’s, Apple, IKEA, Macy’s, Johnson & Johnson, McGraw Hill, Staples, Campbell’s Soup, U.S. Foods, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kaiser Permanente, Volkswagen, Walgreens, Target, Safeway, FedEx, Intel, L’OREAL, General Motors, Toys “R” Us, White Rose Foods, Toyota and Dow Jones & Company.

Your Path to ZNE Building Results

Your building’s technology path will mirror how traditional phones have morphed into smart phones: All of the technologies to enable a ZNE building have been developed. As with the smart phone, the path toward smart buildings and ZNE results will be paved by declining prices for the enabling technologies. Investing now in ZNE technologies will reduce your costs. As importantly, it will start you down the learning curve toward the future where most buildings will be smart buildings delivering ZNE results.

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