Research and reports
Here you’ll find our original research, analysis, and editorials on electrification issues.
FEATURED
Authors: Aurélie Vérin, Mathieu Poirier
In the fall of 2023, The Building Decarbonization Alliance published Grid Implications of Electrifying Residential New Construction, a discussion paper written to address concerns about the near-term viability of all-electric new residential construction. Our objective was to capture the utility sector’s perspective on the interplay of electrifying new homes and the electricity grid, and as…
Authors: Aurélie Vérin, Mathieu Poirier
This short report offers valuable insights into the range of strategies being employed at municipal, provincial, and federal levels, and includes comparative perspectives from the USA and Europe.
SORT BY:
The release of the Canada Green Buildings Strategy (CGBS) is a much-needed step along the pathway to net zero for Canada’s building sector. Buildings directly account for around 13% of our annual greenhouse gas emissions, and as our Pace of Progress report showed earlier this year, change is happening far too slowly to meet our 2030 and 2050 emissions targets. The status quo is clearly not working, and strategies like the CGBS are essential to getti…
Reports:
With 18% of Canada’s GHG emissions flowing from the building sector, and more than 77% of building emissions coming from combusting fossil fuels for space and water heating, a switch to non-emitting heating sources is needed to achieve the ambitious target of zero national greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As noted in The Transition Accelerator’s Pathways to Net Zero report, the replacement of fossil-fuel fired furnaces and boilers with electric heating equipment (electri…
There is currently an important gap in publicly available analytical capacity to evaluate the impacts of building decarbonization measures in Canada. Publicly available models tend to be “top-down”, broad in scope, and lacking the granularity to address the range of technological measures, differences in building stock, and provincial or regional differences. Many “bottom-up” models, meanwhile, are proprietary, closed-source, and built for specific regions rather than…
Discussion Papers:
A recent article in Le Droit implied that grid constraints can limit or delay new residential projects—in this specific case, in Gatineau, Quebec. The article raised concerns in the energy information space and among policy makers about the viability of all-electric residential new construction in the near term.
In response, the Building Decarbonization Alliance reached out to our partner network to better understand the issue, conducting interviews with several ut…
Reports:
The need for cooling is becoming a matter of life and death in Canada. The 2021 heat dome in BC is the single deadliest weather event in Canadian history, and after the hottest July ever recorded globally and temperatures reaching over 40 degrees in BC in August, it’s no surprise that nearly 7,000 Canadians are adding a central air conditioning system to their home every week.
The difference between an air conditioner and a heat pump is minimal, but the benefits of switc…
The clock is ticking. To meet our climate goals, we must act now to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Canada’s buildings and the systems that support them. With this impetus, it’s more important than ever for stakeholders to have clear and reliable information on the most effective pathways to decarbonizing our buildings—and in this position paper, we make the case for electrification as the best way for the sector to achieve net zero.
Specifically, the pape…
