Analysis

Research and reports

Here you’ll find our original research, analysis, and editorials on electrification issues.

FEATURED

Grid Implications of Electrifying Residential New Construction—Update
November 22, 2024

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…

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Report: Jurisdictional Scan: Building Heating Decarbonization
September 19, 2024

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.

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Blog Post
Discussion Papers
Reports

Blog Post: Statement on the Canada Green Buildings Strategy
July 2024

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…

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Report: Pace of Progress
February 2024

This report shows the rate of progress necessary to address the climate crisis, providing policy makers and advocates with a simple but powerful depiction of the rate of adoption required to achieve our climate targets.

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Report: The Case for The Building Decarbonization Alliance Open-Source Model
January 2024

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 national use.

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Discussion Paper: Grid Implications of Electrifying Residential New Construction
October 2023

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.

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Report: The Cool Way to Heat Homes: Installing Heat Pumps Instead of Central Air Conditioners in Canada
August 2023

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.

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Report: The Case for Building Electrification in Canada
June 2023

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.

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