Why Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings Feature Prominently in Joe Biden’s Plans
Originally published on RMI.org.
By John Matson
The White House on May 17 announced a slate of new programs aimed at integrating US buildings into the clean energy economy. The initiatives include electrification programs for existing homes, workforce training for next-generation jobs in the buildings sector, and efforts to increase the adoption of efficient electric heat pumps and EV fast chargers.
Alongside the plans for job training and building electrification, the announcement also highlighted the Biden administration’s goals for grid-interactive efficient buildings — a less well-known approach that has significant potential to reduce carbon emissions.
In this blog post, we’ll explore what grid-interactive efficient buildings are and why they feature so prominently in plans for a clean energy future.
What Are Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings?
A grid-interactive efficient building (GEB) continuously optimizes energy use by combining efficiency measures such as LED lighting, efficient heat pumps, and high-performance windows with smart technologies such as solar, battery storage, and integrated building controls. Rather than simply consuming energy from the grid based on the building’s baseline energy use and occupant demands, a GEB interacts with the grid to continuously manage its demand in response to key signals from the electric utility.
To save money, reduce strain on the grid, or limit carbon emissions from electricity generation, a GEB might shed load (e.g., automatically dimming LED lights throughout the building) or shift its load from one time to another (e.g., drawing from on-site batteries rather than the grid) in a practice known as demand flexibility, or load flexibility.
What Is Demand Flexibility?
Demand flexibility is a building’s ability to shed or time-shift its energy demand in response to near-real-time signals about conditions on the grid. Demand flexibility signals can include the current price of electricity, the availability of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, and the carbon intensity of the current energy mix. For instance, a GEB might employ demand flexibility to shift its peak electricity demand to a time of day when solar energy is abundant and might otherwise be curtailed.
Demand flexibility offers significant promise for reducing the carbon emissions from building operations, especially as the grid integrates more distributed energy resources. But the benefits can extend beyond cost and carbon savings. As detailed in a new RMI insight brief, buildings that flex their demand can shift energy away from peak usage times, when utilities often rely on fossil-burning “peaker” plants to help meet surging demand. Demand flexibility can therefore reduce the need for these peaker plants, eliminating not only their carbon emissions but also their significant contributions to air pollution.
What Are the Potential Benefits of GEBs?
The potential energy, emissions, and cost savings from combining energy efficiency and demand flexibility in GEBs are substantial. Buildings account for more than 70 percent of US electricity consumption and at least one-third of US emissions, according to the US Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office (BTO). A new GEB roadmap from the BTO estimates that smarter, more efficient buildings can eliminate 80 million tons of CO2 emissions annually by 2030, reducing the emissions of the entire US power sector by 6 percent. The emissions savings from GEBs would be equivalent to retiring more than 50 midsize coal plants or taking 17 million cars off the road.
Widespread adoption of GEB technologies would reduce peak loads on the grid, which would in turn reduce the needed capacity of the grid to meet those demands. The cost savings of GEBs would therefore extend beyond the owners and tenants of the GEBs themselves. By 2040, the BTO calculates, GEBs could save the US power system more than $100 billion in cumulative electricity generation and transmission costs.
What Are the New US Goals for GEBs?
In the GEB roadmap, released May 17 in conjunction with the White House announcement, the US Department of Energy laid out a goal of tripling the energy efficiency and demand flexibility of buildings by 2030, relative to 2020 levels. To reach that goal, the roadmap articulates 14 recommendations, from enhancing R&D for smart-building technologies to policy options for encouraging integration of GEB practices.
Among the roadmap’s recommendations is that government agencies should “lead by example” — deploying GEB measures in government-owned buildings to demonstrate the benefits and provide valuable insights and best practices for more widespread deployment. Already, the vast majority of US states have adopted requirements for energy usage or efficiency in government buildings, and demand flexibility could become a valuable tool for meeting those requirements.
At the federal level, the savings from GEBs would be significant. The US General Services Administration (GSA) is the nation’s largest landlord, with nearly 10,000 buildings and more than 375 million square feet of real estate under its control. In a 2019 cost-benefit analysis, RMI found that the GSA could save $50 million annually (about 20 percent of its energy expenditures) by implementing GEB measures across its portfolio of buildings. In all six locations that RMI studied in the GSA analysis, the payback period for GEB improvements was less than four years (and in some cases less than a year), demonstrating the soundness of the investment for the government and for taxpayers.
Next Steps at the Federal Level
A new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) provides a blueprint for the GSA to select buildings that are ideal candidates for cost-effective GEB projects. The report also lays out strategies and best practices for integrating GEB measures into the various phases of contract development for energy-focused building retrofits.
The NREL report notes that the sheer number of buildings managed by the GSA would allow the agency to screen its real estate portfolio for the highest-value GEB candidates before applying the early lessons learned in implementing GEB measures in performance contracts. NREL also notes that the buildings with the greatest economic potential for grid-interactive efficiency tend to share features such as time-of-use energy rates, high demand charges for a building’s peak energy usage, or utility or state programs that incentivize utility customers to be responsive in their energy demand.
One of the challenges identified by the new reports from BTO and NREL is the maturity and availability of some technologies that would optimize GEB implementation. Systems for coordinated, whole-building automation in response to signals from the grid are among the emerging technologies that will be needed to maximize GEBs’ benefits. The GSA’s Proving Ground program is evaluating some of these building control systems in demonstration projects, and the learnings from those evaluations should help to further shape best practices for implementing GEB projects nationwide.
The Path to 2030 and Beyond
By integrating energy efficiency, distributed energy generation technologies, and demand flexibility into its buildings, the GSA can help to advance the state of the art in grid-interactive efficient buildings. The proof points from GEB projects in the federal government’s building portfolio will not only help advance the DOE goal of tripling demand flexibility and efficiency measures by 2030. They should also make for a cleaner, more resilient grid powering smarter, more efficient buildings—all while saving taxpayers money.
Environment
‘A real wildcard’: World’s largest wealth fund issues inflation warning on hot commodity markets
Nicolai Tangen, chief executive officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, during a news conference in Oslo, Norway, on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The chief executive of the world’s largest wealth fund says there are many wild cards in financial markets right now, but the “big worry” for investors is what a commodities rally could mean for the inflation outlook.
Nicolai Tangen, CEO of the Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday that soaring energy and raw material prices could prove to be a significant headache for major central banks as they continue to fight inflation.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the S&P GSCI, a benchmark index that tracks the performance of global commodities, had jumped 9% since the start of the year, outpacing the broad S&P 500 index.
Oil and copper prices have climbed around 13%, respectively, year-to-date, while gold has repeatedly notched fresh record highs in recent months.
Asked whether he had any concerns about hot commodity markets, NBIM’s Tangen replied, “Yes, the big worry is just what that could mean for inflation right?”
He added, “So, if energy and raw material prices continue to move up, that is going to feed through to end-product prices, which are going to be higher. And that could be the real wildcard when it comes to inflation expectation.”
NBIM manages the so-called Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global. The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which was valued at 17.7 trillion kroner ($1.6 trillion) at the end of March, was established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of Norway’s oil and gas sector.
To date, the fund has put money in more than 8,800 companies in over 70 countries around the world, making it one of the largest investors across the globe.
Fewer rate cuts
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde had also signaled the impact of commodity prices last week, in the broader context of the institutions next monetary policy steps. She said the central bank remains on course to cut rates, barring any major shocks — but stressed that the ECB would need to be “extremely attentive” to commodity price movements.
“Clearly on energy and on food, it has a direct and rapid impact,” Lagarde said.
Euro zone inflation slowed by more than expected to 2.4% March, bolstering expectations of a near-term rate cut. Market pricing for interest rate cuts, which has been highly volatile in recent weeks, now also points to the ECB appearing set to ease monetary policy before the U.S. Federal Reserve.
With most readings putting U.S. inflation at around 3% and not moving appreciably for several months, traders on Tuesday afternoon were pricing in a 13% chance of a U.S. rate cut in June, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool. That’s down from nearly 70% last month.
A worker supervises the furnace in the foundry at the ZiJIn Serbia Copper plant in Bor, Serbia, on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Copper prices have rallied recently, driven by an improving outlook for global manufacturing and mine disruptions.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tangen said Norway’s wealth fund continued to believe it would be “tough” for central banks to get inflation down toward target levels, and major central banks would move differently, depending on local inflationary pressures.
Acknowledging multiple factors that now underpin inflation, Tangen said, “You have some of the geopolitical tensions, you have near-shoring, you have the climate effect on food through the world’s harvest, you’ve got some changes in trading routes and so on, and wage inflation is also higher than perhaps we had expected.”
He added, “We are expecting fewer rate cuts than the market did, of course, earlier in the year. I have to say my surprise is that the market has taken it so well. I would have expected the market to have reacted more negatively to this postponement of interest rate cuts.”
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report.
Mercedes unveiled its 2025 electric G-Class tonight – which it’s calling the “G580 with EQ technology” – in Beverly Hills, CA, and we’re here at the reveal with all the details.
Mercedes first surprised us with its “EQG” concept at IAA in 2021. Now it’s heading to production, but with a somewhat more plain name.
At the time we had almost no details, but now we’re learning all about the upcoming electric off-roader here in the wilds of… Beverly Hills, California.
So, maybe no heavy off-roading demonstrations are in the cards for today.
But the electric G-Class does have off-roading chops. It comes with 4 independent electric motors putting out a combined 579hp and 879 lb-ft of torque. Each motor has its own 2-speed transmission, giving access to a low-gear with 2:1 gear reduction for off-roading, and the 4 independent motors mean the car can vector torque to whichever wheels need it – even better than a locking differential.
4 wheel motors also means the G580 will be capable of what Mercedes calls G-Turn, its branding of what we’ve previously seen referred to as “tank turn” when Rivian was working on it (but later abandoned and pivoted to “front dig mode” instead). This means it will be able to do 2 full rotations on the spot by spinning the wheels on the left and right sides of the car in opposite directions at once.
However, this feature is more of a toy, just for fun. Mercedes also has a G-steering feature, which is sort of a mini-version of the G-turn, which will help you make extremely tight turns by activating torque vectoring to help make tight turns (though unlike the EQS, it doesn’t have rear-wheel steering).
The G580 can climb up to a 100% (45º) grade and hold stable on lateral slopes of up to 35º, ford 33.5 inches of water (6 inches deeper than the gas version), with 9.8 inches of ground clearance, a 32º approach angle, 30.7º departure angle and 20.3º breakover angle, with independent double wishbone suspension in the front and a solid de Dion axle in the rear.
To help you see where you’re going, the G580 has a “transparent hood” feature, which uses a camera to show what’s in front of and under the car on the internal display. This is important for off-roading, because if you’re going over a ridge or something and can’t see under the hood, the transparent hood can help you see where you’re going.
But it’s also a Mercedes, which means it’s fancy inside. And the 2025 model will be particularly fancy, as it’s only available in EDITION ONE trim with lots of exclusive interior and exterior touches. But you’ll be able to customize the car basically any way you want through Mercedes’ MANUFAKTUR car customization process.
So whether you’re conquering a real jungle or just the concrete jungle of… Rodeo Drive, or Las Vegas for the latest cryptocurrency convention, you’ll feel right at home in the Mercedes G-Class.
That fanciness is certainly needed to justify its price, which Mercedes hasn’t yet released, but said that it will be “in the ballpark” of the G63 (which starts at around $180,000).
The G580 is smaller than the the gas-powered G-Class. At 182″ it’s about 10 inches less long, but just as tall (78″) and as wide (76″). It shares the same 113.8in wheelbase as the gas model.
Otherwise, the exterior shares the boxy design of the gas version. Unlike many EVs, it doesn’t adopt a particularly curvy exterior, and still has a textured grille area.
The decision to stick with a traditional-looking grille goes hand in hand with Mercedes’ recent decision to add a “more classic grille option” to its EQS. And it turns out, if you want the G580 with the traditional G-Class grille, you can just get the standard grille, directly from the gas version, if you prefer it (but then you don’t get those cool lights).
And overall, Mercedes said it was very important to maintain the overall design of the G-Class. So it hasn’t tweaked it to make it look electric, other than some grille modifications and a couple aero bits.
Mercedes says the vehicle has “optimized aerodynamics,” which was surely a primary design intent of this vehicle that consists solely of straight lines. But actually, there have been a couple small changes, like a slightly modified A-pillar and a strip above the windshield to smooth out the front edge of the roof.
As for details on its electric drive capabilities, the aforementioned 4 motors can sprint to 60mph in an estimated 4.6 seconds, and reach a top speed of 112mph/180kmh. These aren’t the fastest numbers out there, but the car isn’t meant to be a racecar – Mercedes could have gone with a bigger battery, or more power, but that would have meant other compromises elsewhere, and Mercedes said that it was far more important to focus on the total package.
Mercedes hasn’t told us a range number yet, but with a 116kWh battery and a face that’s even flatter than its electric-triangle-on-wheels competition, we can imagine its somewhere in the mid-200s. It’s 473km on WLTP, which is 293mi, but WLTP is a little more lenient than EPA numbers.
More importantly than overall range, Mercedes says the G-Class will DC charge from 10-80% in 32 minutes, with a 200kW peak charging rate (and an 11kW AC charge rate). That maths out to an average charge rate of approximately 150kW on DC over the full session, which is pretty reasonable.
Given the car’s massive 116kWh (usable) battery, it still doesn’t charge nearly as fast as a Hyundai/Kia E-GMP car, but it’s still quite good compared to other chunky EVs (the G580 weighs ~6,800lbs/3,805kg, with a GVWR of exactly 3,500kg – the maximum allowed by German law).
The G580 comes with 5 regenerative braking settings, including Mercedes “D-auto” setting, where the car intelligently decides to apply regenerative braking based on traffic conditions (we recently tried this setting on the eSprinter, but struggled to find a situation where it would be useful). Regen activates off-throttle, suggesting the possibility of one-pedal driving, but we haven’t had a chance to try it out and see if its max 217kW regen braking capacity is really strong enough to avoid most brake pedal usage.
For a final cool electric touch, the car has done something new with its iconic rear end. In place of the spare tire carrier that typically adorns the backside of the G-Class, there’s an optional compartment which can be used to store charging cables or the like. You can still opt for the spare tire, too, but I really like the charging box.
Electrek’s Take
Look, this is a G-Class. It’s a statement car, it’s an image car. If you like it, you know that you like it. For the majority of drivers, its off-road capabilities really won’t matter all that much.
What matters here is whether it stays true to the G-Class, and as far as we can tell, it does. It looks like a G-Class and it feels like a G-Class. The doors thunk closed like a G-Class.
And an important note – Mercedes said, “if the G can go electric, any car can go electric.” We, of course, agree. This is a car that has been defined in many ways by excess, with the gas version getting just 14 miles per gallon. And yet here it is, in electric trim, with a huge battery (but not out of line with other huge EVs), beating the gas version’s performance both on- and off-road.
As for the name – while “G580 with EQ technology” is a bit of a mouthful, I actually like the simple designation “G580.” Surely people will refer to it as “the electric G-Class” or the like, but by giving the car a regular model name, Mercedes is saying that it’s treating the car like a regular car.
Instead of siloing EVs into their own sub-brand, Mercedes is saying that this is a G-Class, and if you want a G-Class, this is a G-Class. Mercedes was clear that this is not a rational vehicle, that its customers don’t need a G-Class, they want a G-Class.
So there you go. If you want a G-Class, this is a G-Class.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee new episodes are delivered as soon as they’re available.
Stories we discuss in this episode (with links):
Tesla driver arrested for homicide after running over motorcyclist on Autopilot
Tesla officially unveils new Model 3 Performance with 0-60 mph in 2.9 sec
Arres Prevent robot uses advanced AI to fight potholes
Allye Energy wants to power your job site with used Land Rover batteries
Tesla skirts Austin’s environmental rules at Texas gigafactory
Listen & Subscribe:
Share your thoughts!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us in Apple Podcasts or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show!
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
You’re reading Electrek— experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest reviews.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Environment11 months agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports6 months agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Technology3 years ago
Game consoles were once banned in China. Now Chinese developers want a slice of the $49 billion pie
-
Politics2 years ago
Have the last few wobbly weeks seen a turning point for Johnson as PM?