Energy Production and Storage

Building electrification using air-source heat pumps (ASHPs) is costly and requires a significant amount of space. Ice heating has the potential to reduce the capacity of ASHPs needed for full electrification by 50%, while also allowing for grid interactive peak shifting for added energy resilience and time-of-use carbon savings in order to meet decarbonization policies and local stretch codes. This thermal storage solution can dramatically reduce first costs, carbon emissions, and space required for full electrification of new construction and existing buildings.

What was once a vision by the Green Justice Coalition (GJC) to support environmental justice communities by making them resilient and removing fossil fuels in their neighborhoods is becoming reality. The goal is simple: How can you provide a decarbonized heating and cooling system on a resilient virtual microgrid without taxing the residents? Chinatown Power Inc., along with the GJC are set to make that vision a reality.

This session will present RMI’s new freely available economic modeling software for different home decarbonization technologies (e.g., rooftop solar, battery storage, weatherization, air-source heat pumps, heat pump water heaters), demonstrate how different types of energy professionals can leverage it (e.g., estimating bill impacts of whole home versus hybrid air-source heat pumps), and visualize results for different retrofit types across the northeast (e.g., percent of homes that can cost-effectively electrify).

In light of the catastrophic flooding which occurred throughout the Northeast region in 2023, we must challenge ourselves to confront the increased likelihood of extreme weather events and diminished water resilience that our projects now face. Resilience can only be achieved if we embrace the reality of new weather patterns and adjust both design and funding strategies accordingly.

This session will discuss the advantages and challenges of using CO2 Heat Pumps for decarbonizing and efficiently electrifying commercial Domestic Hot Water systems. The session will outline and discuss the Mitsubishi Electric Heat2O DHW solution along with other CO2 DHW systems and their applications. The functionality, operation, scalability, and relevant design challenges related to these types of solutions will be explained. This session will discuss the use and benefit of CO2 as a refrigerant and its impact on environmentally sustainable buildings.

Passive House buildings go hand-in-hand with on-site generation and electrification, but what happens when you have code-required emergency power backup? The Kenzi tackled the wicked problem of designing, pricing, and permitting the first all-electric building above four floors in the City of Boston. We will dive into the nitty gritty of design, funding, and procurement, reveal our strategy for Boston Fire Department concerns, and discuss what code language we leaned on to pull it all together.

The Massachusetts Maritime Academy consists of 16 buildings comprising approximately 600,000 sf, with heating for the buildings is provided by gas fired hot water boilers in each. They have undertaken a planning effort and initial design for a distributed campus-wide ground source heat pump system, combined with extensive energy retrofits. The plan consists of a neutral temperature Energy Transfer Loop that will tie various geo-exchange systems together to feed heat pump plants in each building.

Recent technology developments and incentive programs are creating new opportunities for ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs) at the building and neighborhood scale (networked geothermal). Practitioners designing and piloting GSHPs will describe how GSHPs can reduce the environmental burden on LMI communities by decarbonizing space and water heating.  Through design and case studies, they will describe what characteristics make a building or neighborhood a promising fit for GSHP implementation, and those posing significant challenges.

Before PVs became affordable, excess solar energy was stored thermally. Energy storage, both thermal and electrical, aids grid penetration of renewables and builds resilience on-site. We’ll look at passive and active thermal storage in advanced buildings, either integrated with the structure or as remote storage. We’ll also look at battery storage in an off-grid project and hydronic storage in a proposed small commercial project and show via an interactive model the effects of varying PV and storage capacity, and how storage increases the percentage of solar energy used on-site.

Bruce Becker is the architect, developer, owner, and operator of Hotel Marcel. He will discuss the conversion of the formerly vacant Pirelli Building in New Haven into Hotel Marcel, a 165-room LEED Platinum all-electric boutique hotel and conference center which is the first Passive House certified hotel in the United States. The discussion will include electrification (no fossil fuels including 100% of HVAC, hot water, kitchen, and laundry), power over Ethernet (POE) for all Lighting and Shades, and micro-grid creation for resilience with 1 megawatt-hour of battery storage.