Zeroing in on Zero Net Energy

This chapter describes one such effort by a utility energy efficiency program, the Zero Net Energy Pilot Program developed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) for Northern California. The move to ZNE by PG&E is discussed as a reflection of the changing political environment and energy savings goals of the state of California, PG&E's utility regulators, and the utility itself. To move to ZNE, it was important to address key gaps in existing energy-efficiency programs. While a number of stakeholders are working to advance building technologies related to ZNE, the role for the California investor owned utilities (IOUs) was to demonstrate advanced technologies and encourage the market to transform as quickly as possible. Using the PG&E energy-efficiency programs as a platform, it was envisioned that the movement toward ZNE would require important program changes. These include being involved very early in the schematic design phase of projects, accelerating the pace of technological development, supporting effective demonstration projects, and widespread education program development. These efforts were implemented to inform decision-making around energy savings related to location, infrastructure choices such as land use and transportation planning, and community scale choices such as street orientation to optimize solar.