“The decarbonization picture is that electricity is more efficient than fossil fuels in many applications, vehicles or cars, as well as heating systems,” Solar Washington board member Charlee Thompson said as she kicked off the panel on “Decarbonization and Electrification” at the 2024 Solar Summit on October 4, 2024. “The electrification piece of the overall decarbonization strategy becomes really, really important.”

Clean Energy Transition Institute (CETI) Research Analyst Ruby Moore-Bloom, McKinstry senior consultant Scott Foreman-Murray and Rewiring America volunteer Wendy Ferry provided insights on how to make electrification happen and how to achieve Washington’s decarbonization goals.

Pathways to Decarbonization

“A decarbonization pathways study that our organization put out last year called Net Zero Northwest looked at the pathways to reach net zero emissions in the four Northwest states by 2050,” CETI Moore-Bloom said. The goal of net zero emissions by 2050 is agreed upon by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. That is the target that Washington has also set in law.

Decarbonization, she said, has five pillars:

• Energy efficiency is the bedrock decarbonization strategy, with electrification being one of the critical pieces of decarbonization and as many end-uses as possible being met with electricity. “Make sure that the electricity is actually clean.”
• Using electricity for things that you can plug in, like an electric vehicle or a heat pump.
• A significant portion of electricity is going to produce synthetic fuels. There are a lot of end-uses that cannot be met by electricity. This includes aviation and maritime shipping, really high temperature industrial processes, or heavy-duty trucking. “We're going to still need some fuels in our economy. We need to make those fuels in as low carbon a way as possible.”
• There are uses in the economy that are neither met with electricity nor fuels - for example, agriculture. “We're not going to get rid of those emissions by electrifying or fuels.”
• Some emissions can be captured and sequestered or used as an input for synthetic fuels.

“We know that the approach requires incorporation of a diverse set of energy resources from all over the West,” she said, “even in the Northwest.” The study found 15 gigawatts of solar capacity in Washington as part of the solution to a decarbonized future. “We're talking about a dramatic scaling up to meet the much larger electricity demand that this future world would entail. Because electricity is so efficient, we are dramatically increasing the electricity load. I you calculate everything to a comparable energy unit, the overall energy demand is actually lower.”

The Clean Fuel Standard and vehicles policies help address emissions from transportation, she opined. “We also have great policies around decreasing emissions in our buildings. There are a lot of elements to this progress. We're now implementing those policies.”

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance puts out a Residential Building Stock Assessment every five years or so, she said, and 2022 data was just released this year. Nearly 30% of Washington’s single-family homes have heat pumps. “When we look at multifamily homes, the adoption rate for heat pumps goes down a lot.” Another two quick examples, to measure progress, are electric vehicles and rooftop solar. Rooftop solar rose from 3% in 2017 to 12% in 2022, and EVs from 1% to 8%.

In an ecosystem assessment, she said, the big theme is that the Northwest is well positioned with this suite of clean energy policies. Now, we're in this super-messy, challenging and exciting time of making those policies come to fruition.

Decarbonization in Commercial Buildings

McKinstry's Foreman-Murray said that he wanted to talk at a high level about decarbonization in the commercial space.  First, he wanted to explain why we're seeing energy behind this: "That may be shareholders pushing that forward, corporate sustainability commitments, climate pledges, ESG." Money is obviously a consideration, but it's usually not the primary driver for decarbonization. There are gains to be made, not just in efficiency in the building and operating costs. "We are in a post pandemic space for commercial real estate where occupancy rates are very low," and you can distinguish yourself in the market through more sustainable buildings because they are more attractive to tenants. "If you're a tenant looking for lower utility costs, that decarbonized building may be cheaper for you.”

What makes commercial buildings unique, he said, is that, first, these are big buildings, meaning they use lot of electricity. Even converting a natural gas boiler to electricity gets big efficiency gains, though the building is still pulling a lot of energy. “When you combine that with limited potential real estate for solar, you're not going to get there with solar. You have to come up with a more holistic approach.”   Foreman-Murray noted that these sites tend to be extremely complex. Airports, stadiums or universities might have 50 buildings on 100 acres. “We advocate a holistic approach as we think about decarbonization because it's not a short-term project.”

First, he suggested looking at reducing embodied carbon. Existing buildings are going to be better for that but for new buildings, you want to think about the selection of low carbon materials. Then, he said, “Understand what system is in place, what your electric system has to be, how much energy you're going to need, gaining efficiencies. Finally, account for the financial impact of that work before moving on to electrification and renewables." 

“Most important in my mind is the energy efficiency piece,” he said. Commercial buildings aren't occupied 24 hours, so making sure things are shut down and running efficiently is a winning approach. After five to seven years, even a new building is probably 20% less efficient than when it was built. “You have to be proactive to because people override systems. Systems start to fail. You have to keep maintaining" and think seriously about an ongoing monitoring or commissioning program.

By focusing on efficiency, Foreman-Murray concluded, you help make decarbonization projects affordable for the institution.

Residential Home Electrification

Moving on to electrification of homes, Rewiring America Ferry started by asking why we electrify. She suggested that there are four reasons: climate, health, budget and safety.

“For climate, electrification is very, very important, and you probably heard the mantra, electrify everything. If it's a fossil fuel, its byproduct is a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases are what's causing climate change.”

Carbon dioxide is a huge contributor to climate change, she noted, as is methane. “Natural gas is 90% methane, and that's becoming a huge issue.” Next is health. Even when turned off, gas stoves directly expose people to emissions. And not only does natural gas contain methane, but its byproducts include formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and nitric oxides. On budgets, electric heat pumps provide the same heat level for less money. For safety, there are about 286 serious methane gas explosions per year nationwide. Devices can be replaced with zero emission alternatives.  

“How does someone go about electrifying their home? It's a lot like a term paper. You do things in this order and follow the steps”:

• Research and make a plan. Rewiring America is a great website for electrification. There's even a checklist for homeowners.
• A home energy audit. The energy auditor tells how efficient homes are and gives a prescription to fix it. This report suggests steps like replacing windows and doors, updating the water heater, adding insulation, and sealing.
• Weatherization reduces greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy loads and stress on the power grid. In turn, insulation makes a home more resilient.
• Electrical panel. It's best for a homeowner to make a plan and get an electrician in once, rather than multiple times for multiple projects. Even renters can electrify their lives.
• “You can buy that electric car, a one or two burner induction portable stove. You can invest in community solar.”
• The Inflation Reduction Act. There are credits for clean energy, building efficiency and infrastructure. The IRA is divided into four buckets: home heating, home efficiency, clean energy and vehicles.

To understand how much money you'll get back, you can go to the Rewiring America website and figure that out with the savings calculator.

If you missed it, see also our June 2024 featured post: Electrify Your Home - Solar Washington

In Summary

For individuals as well as businesses, there are a vast variety of ways to decarbonize through electrification and to save money too.