Back
A year and a half since Massachusetts introduced an optional new building code aimed at lowering fossil fuel use, climate activists are heartened by how quickly cities and towns are adopting the new guidelines.
The new code, known as the specialized stretch code, became law in 2023. Since then, 45 municipalities representing about 30% of the state’s population have voted to adopt its guidelines. The code is already active in 33 of these communities and scheduled to take effect over the next year in another 12.
“That is just an astounding statistic to me,” said climate advocate Lisa Cunningham, one of the founders of decarbonization nonprofit ZeroCarbonMA. “The rollout has been, quite frankly, amazing.”
Massachusetts has long been a leader in using opt-in building codes to push for decarbonization of the built environment. In 2009, the state introduced the country’s first stretch code, an alternative version of the building code that includes more stringent energy efficiency requirements. Municipalities must vote to adopt the stretch code, and the vast majority have done so: As of June, just 8.5% of residents lived in the 50 towns and cities without a stretch code.
The specialized stretch code takes this approach a step farther. The goal is to create a code that will help achieve target emissions reductions from 2025 to 2050, when the state aims to be carbon-neutral. In 2021, the legislature called on the state to create an additional opt-in code that would get close to requiring net-zero carbon emissions from new construction.
“We want to work towards decarbonizing those buildings, right from the start, as we look to a future in 2050 while we are net-zero in greenhouse gas emissions,” said Elizabeth Mahony, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.
At the same time, electrified, energy-efficient homes will mean lower energy costs for residents over time, more comfortable and healthier indoor air, and more stable indoor temperatures when power outages occur, she said.
The construction industry, meanwhile, has concerns about the measure’s impact on upfront costs.
The resulting code doesn’t require buildings to achieve net-zero emissions right away, but attempts to ensure any new construction will be ready to go carbon-neutral before 2050.
There are a few pathways for compliance. A newly built home can use fossil fuels for space heating, water heating, cooking, or drying or be built fully electrified. If the new home uses any fossil fuels, however, it must be built to a higher energy efficiency standard, be wired to ready the house for future electrification, and include solar panels onsite where feasible. In all cases, homes must be wired for at least one electric vehicle charging station.
Larger, multifamily buildings must be built to Passive House standards, a certification that requires the dramatic reduction of energy use as compared to similar buildings of the same size and type. Single-family homes can also choose to pursue Passive House certification.
Decarbonization advocates are pleased with the rollout so far. The state’s major cities, including Boston, Worcester, and Cambridge, were all quick to adopt the code. In most municipalities the vote to adopt the specialized code has been near-unanimous, said Cunningham.
And more communities are considering the specialized code.
“We’re talking to a lot of communities that are contemplating it for their town meetings this fall,” Mahony said. “We know there is a growing sense out there of wanting to do this.”
The key to convincing cities and towns that the code is a good idea is for municipal governments to understand and frame the code as a consumer protection measure, rather than an added burden, Cunningham said. The requirements of the specialized code along with state and federal incentives can save on construction costs upfront, and will ensure buildings cost less to operate during their lifetime, offering significant benefits to residents, she said.
“At the point of construction this is an incremental expense – it’s barely even a blip,” she said. “Then it directly reduces your future electricity bills.”
Many in the construction industry, however, disagree with Cunningham’s take. Emerson Clauss III, a director with the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Massachusetts, has found the equipment needed to reach the high standards in the code is more expensive than its authors counted on, and supply chain issues are causing even higher prices.
“It’s had quite a rough start to it,” Clauss said. “It’s adding considerable cost to new housing.”
He also worries that the high cost of electricity now — Massachusetts electricity prices are the third highest in the country — spells near-term financial trouble for homeowners that feel forced to go all-electric.
“The idea that it’s going to cost less 20 years from now — what does that do for people who need to get into a house now?” he asked.
Furthermore, the creation of a new optional code, he said, adds another variable for builders already jumping between the basic code and the previous stretch code, as well as learning the new rules in ten communities banning fossil fuels as part of a state pilot program. Even municipal building directors aren’t able to keep up, Clauss said, recalling a confused call with a suburban building inspector who needed 20 minutes to confirm it was OK to install a natural gas line in a new home.
In Cambridge, one of the first cities to adopt the specialized code, Assistant Commissioner of Inspectional Services Jacob Lazzara noted there was some confusion at the outset, but time and proactive communication from the city helped ease the transition. The city has held trainings, created materials to hand out to builders and design professionals, and fine-tuned internal communications to make sure the staff is all well informed.
“There was a little bit of shock for everyone at first, but I think we’re in a good place right now,” Lazzara said.
CLEAN ENERGY: A national report identifies thousands of planned, under construction and recently completed clean energy projects that could be eligible for labor-related Inflation Reduction Act incentives, including more than 80 in Wisconsin. (WPR)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
WIND: Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are developing wind turbines made from recyclable plant material that would avoid the need to send them to landfills. (New York Times)
GRID: A University of Minnesota professor says grid reliability measures like underground power lines, energy storage systems and climate resilience hubs are needed amid aging grid infrastructure and more extreme weather. (MPR)
CARBON CAPTURE: Western Michigan University receives a $5 million federal grant to advance research on commercial-scale carbon capture and storage. (WOOD-TV8)
BIOGAS: Michigan clean water advocates call on state regulators to deny a permit for a biogas production plant that an owner says is needed to remain profitable. (Michigan Advance)
EFFICIENCY: Kansas City, Missouri, receives a $9 million federal Inflation Reduction Act grant to improve energy efficiency in city buildings. (KCTV)
SOLAR:
BIOFUELS: Minnesota will award more than $3.3 million to gas stations to upgrade or replace gas infrastructure to support biofuels with higher levels of ethanol. (Center Square)
COMMENTARY: A Minnesota columnist says it would be easier and cheaper for taxpayers to phase out ethanol plants and grow less corn than building billions of dollars in carbon pipelines to bury emissions underground. (Star Tribune)
SOLAR: Alabama Power is paying less for power generated by third-party companies and charging them a fee to connect to the grid, prompting criticism that the utility is “trying to protect their monopoly” from solar energy providers. (AL.com)
CLEAN ENERGY:
COAL:
WIND: North Carolina’s second onshore wind farm begins operations as the sector struggles under a 2018 moratorium on wind permits. (Daily Tar Heel)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
GRID:
PIPELINES: The Mountain Valley Pipeline identifies a manufacturer’s defect in an elbow joint as the cause of a May rupture that occurred during water pressure testing. (Roanoke Times)
GEOTHERMAL: Two of the most promising companies in the emerging geothermal energy industry are based in Houston, largely because the technology builds on hydraulic fracturing techniques. (Texas Monthly)
BIOMASS: Environmentalists blast Georgia Power’s plan to add 80 megawatts of generation from biomass facilities, which regulators are considering ahead of a mid-September vote. (Georgia Recorder)
STORAGE:
FINANCE: A progressive business group sues Texas over a 2021 law that blocks state investments in companies that have reduced or cut ties with the oil and gas sector and that state officials say are antagonistic to fossil fuels. (Texas Tribune)
CLEAN ENERGY: Researchers estimate the clean energy transition will demand $1 trillion in federal spending by 2031, though only $66 billion — or 6% of that total — has been distributed so far via the Inflation Reduction Act. (Grist)
BATTERIES: The federal government is reportedly considering shoring up domestic projects that process critical minerals for clean energy applications as they face steep competition from cheaper Chinese materials. (Politico)
WIND:
GRID:
POLITICS: In her first formal interview as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris promises she won’t ban fracking if elected. (Axios)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR: Observers say a growing number of Western water managers are considering covering irrigation canals with solar panels to generate power and reduce evaporation. (Water Education)
EFFICIENCY: University of Maryland scientists are leading research into energy-efficient air conditioners. (Inside Climate News)
UTILITIES: Advocates push back on proposed California legislation aimed at reducing utility bills, saying it would gut low-income clean energy programs without significantly increasing affordability. (Canary Media)
ACTIVISM: Environmental and community activists oppose a federal loan for a project exploring whether plastic could be a viable replacement for coal as fuel for steelmaking. (Inside Climate News)
COMMENTARY: PJM’s latest capacity auction with sky-high prices should not be a cause for panic and shows that the grid operator’s market is catching up to the rest of the country in needing to manage supply changes, a former regulator writes. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Boston will be able to install at least 300 electric vehicle chargers across the city, focusing on environmental justice communities, using a $15 million federal grant, while Massachusetts park officials will install as many as 40 chargers using a $1.2 million grant. (Boston.com, WHDH)
ALSO: New York City will use a $15 million federal grant to install 600 level-2 curbside chargers throughout the city, although some criticize the plan for permanently taking away street space for other non-private car uses. (amNY, Streetsblog)
POLITICS: Maryland’s election this fall for a U.S. Senate seat could make or break federal climate action. (Inside Climate News)
RENEWABLE POWER:
GEOTHERMAL: A geothermal pilot project in Massachusetts is a rare example of gas companies and environmental activists partnering together for climate action. (Christian Science Monitor)
AFFORDABILITY:
GRID:
BUILDINGS:
TRANSPORTATION:
CARBON CAPTURE: The U.S. has spent more public money on carbon capture and gas-produced hydrogen than any country, a new report finds, even though the technologies remain unproven as cost-effective climate solutions. (The Guardian)
OIL & GAS:
BUILDINGS: The U.S. Energy Department announces $240 million to help state and local governments adopt more efficient building codes. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Oakland, California’s school district is the first major district in the U.S. to fully adopt electric school buses, which can send power back to the grid during high demand. (Grist)
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: Along with the addition of 15 GW of solar, battery and wind over the last year, Texas added 6.6% more clean energy jobs to rank second in the U.S. after Idaho. (Houston Chronicle)
GRID:
POLITICS: Maryland’s election for a U.S. Senate seat could make or break federal climate action by stripping Democrats of their current majority. (Inside Climate News)
OVERSIGHT: Texas prepares to launch a new set of business courts overseen by a panel of judges who have previously represented oil and gas companies, raising questions about whether the new courts lean too far toward fossil fuel favoritism. (The Lever)
COMMENTARY: A columnist details how increasingly cheap and widely available solar power will make once-far-fetched applications possible. (New York Times)
SOLAR: The Biden administration finalizes its Western solar plan aimed at expediting development on 31 million acres of federal land in 11 states. (Reuters)
ALSO: A Utah county postpones a deal to install a solar array at a local airport to gather more information, but says it plans to move forward with the project later. (Moab Times-Independent)
PUBLIC LANDS: Federal courts prepare to consider several lawsuits seeking to diminish a president’s power to ban future mining and oil and gas drilling on some federal lands via national monument designation. (Bloomberg Law)
EFFICIENCY: The U.S. Energy Department awards Western states and cities $115.2 million to develop, implement and upgrade building performance standards and energy codes for commercial and multi-family structures. (news release, RTO Insider, subscription)
CLIMATE: Colorado awards local governments $1.9 million to support climate action plans and efficiency and sustainable energy programs. (news release)
STORAGE:
GRID:
OIL & GAS:
POLLUTION: Alaska advocates call on federal regulators to ban cruise ship exhaust scrubbers, saying the air-pollution mitigation systems contaminate ocean water. (KTOO)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
CLEAN ENERGY: The National Science Foundation awards a Hawaii university $4.2 million for clean energy research and education. (Kauai Now)
Illinois has $30 million in incentives available for solar installations on multi-family buildings.
So far, though, the state program has not received any applications for such projects, according to Jan Gudell, Illinois Solar for All associate director at Elevate, the organization tasked with running the state program.
In urban areas like Chicago, residents of environmental justice and lower-income neighborhoods are highly likely to live in multi-family residential buildings where it is extremely difficult to install rooftop solar.
There is little incentive for a landlord to invest in solar that will provide cost savings to the tenants, and rooftops may need significant upgrades to handle solar. In condo buildings, homeowners association bureaucracy and other concerns must be navigated.
There’s also a lesser-known logistical and structural barrier — if solar is to be channeled to individual residential units behind the meter, a separate solar system is essentially needed for each unit — with separate inverters and wiring.
“That’s a lot of hardware, space and cost,” said Aliya Bagewadi, US director of strategic partnerships for Allume Energy, an Australian startup company that says it can address at least this part of the puzzle, by sending energy to individual units with only one inverter and system.
The company has served thousands of customers in Australia, New Zealand and Europe with its SolShare technology. Now it is rolling out in the U.S., in sunny southern states as well as Illinois, because of the state’s robust solar incentives.
“It’s inherently an energy equity issue,” said Bagewadi, who is based in Chicago. “We know [multi-family building residents] are much more likely to be lower-income, longer-term renters. We want to make sure those savings flow to people who can really benefit the most.”
Illinois isn’t alone in the lack of multi-family solar arrays. Solar developers and advocates have long noted the challenge nationwide, especially for affordable multi-family rental buildings. A 2022 study by Berkeley lab noted that in 2021, about 3% of solar installed in the U.S. was on multi-family buildings, mostly owner-occupied condos.
“Solar may be a non-starter in a rental multi-family property because the owner may be looking at a complex, expensive and time-consuming process, where they would have to consider the design, permitting, installation, interconnection, and cost for multiple systems,” said Gudell. “For many property owners, this may be unaffordable and unmanageable.”
A 2018 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that the majority of potential capacity for new solar serving low- and moderate-income customers is on renter-occupied multi-family rooftops. California passed a law in 2015 specifically to address the dearth of solar on multi-family buildings, promising to invest up to $1 billion by 2031.
There are typically several ways to handle rooftop solar on multi-family buildings.
In rental properties, the building owner can own the array, and use the energy to power common areas, like hallways, a pool or gym. Owners can also allocate a portion of the energy savings to tenants, by charging an amenity fee or otherwise collecting some revenue themselves.
Alternately, the energy can all be sent back to the grid, in areas with viable net metering policies, and the compensation can be shared with tenants or among condo owners, often referred to as virtual net metering. Community solar offers a similar situation — where the solar isn’t onsite at all, but residents can subscribe to partake in savings.
Solar advocates, developers, lenders, and policymakers have all been working at state and federal levels to improve opportunities for virtual net metering and community solar.
These arrangements, however, can still be unattractive or impossible depending on state and utility policy. Community solar isn’t even legal in some states, and virtual net metering depends on utility participation.
The California law requiring solar on new multi-family construction up to three stories high exempts areas served by utilities that don’t offer virtual net metering.
SolShare avoids these challenges by sending electricity directly from the solar array to individual users, without involving utilities or the grid.
“You can do behind-the-meter with direct benefit to tenants,” said Bagewadi. “We’re physically pushing the electrons to multiple meters.”
Allume partners with solar installers and developers to help deploy rooftop solar on multi-family buildings, including by working with landlords to design financial structures that benefit both the building owner and tenants. In some cases, Allume acts as the solar developer itself.
With SolShare, a building owner or manager can allocate energy from a shared solar system, based on unit square footage, in equal amounts, or however they choose.
Where the technology is deployed in Australia and the UK, energy can be sent to different units on demand, Bagewadi explained. In the U.S., the rollout in Florida and Mississippi is being done with preset amounts that can be changed with 24 hours notice.
An Allume case study from a 64-unit Orlando apartment building with SolShare notes that a 392-kilowatt rooftop system resulted in savings of almost $100 per month for each unit, with electricity purchased from the grid reduced by almost 60%. While the idea is for residents to use solar behind the meter, excess solar can be sent to the grid. Adding an on-site battery to the mix lets residents use all the power on-site behind the meter, and makes solar power available when the grid is down.
Solar advocates hope the EPA’s $7 billion commitment to the federal equity-focused Solar for All program — separate from Illinois’s state program — will “further unlock multi-family solar,” in Bagewadi’s words.
Gudell said Elevate and other experts know there are many Illinoisans living in multi-family rental buildings that would qualify to have solar installed through Illinois Solar for All. They hope policy and technology evolve to match the available funding.
“We’ll need a solution that addresses the split incentive problem for rental situations, where the building owner cannot or will not subsidize solar for tenants; and the complexity of bringing solar to multiple electrical accounts at one building,” Gudell said.
“Adoption of a technology that allows for a single system to be split into shares, for use by multiple electrical account holders, could help in that it would simplify the design, permitting and installation process.”
GRID: A flood of new solar and battery capacity have kept Texas’ independent state power grid afloat as it sets a new record for peak demand, experts say, though some state lawmakers also credit a new conservation alert system. (Canary Media, KIII)
STORAGE:
SOLAR: A new report highlights Florida as a “solar powerhouse” in the Southeast, with more than 9,000 MW of capacity that’s expected to double by 2027. (WLRN)
OIL & GAS:
COAL: Federal attorneys argue that West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s coal companies shouldn’t have agreed to a settlement for unpaid mine safety fines if they can’t afford to pay. (WV Metro News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
EFFICIENCY: Tennessee seeks more than $167 million in federal money for home energy rebates, but residents will likely have to wait until spring to begin applying. (Tennessee Lookout)
CLIMATE:
POLITICS: A young Democratic Florida Congress member uses his speech during the Democratic National Convention to spotlight the state’s exposure to climate change. (Florida Politics)
CLEAN ENERGY: The Department of Energy says clean energy jobs last year grew at twice the rate of other sectors, with unionization rates higher than in the broader energy industry. (Reuters)
CLIMATE:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Biden administration announces $521 million in grants for electric vehicle charging, and says the number of publicly available chargers has doubled since 2021. (Utility Dive)
GRID:
OIL & GAS:
UTILITIES: Illinois ratepayers have paid an extra $1.8 billion since 2015 by choosing alternative energy suppliers over traditional utilities like ComEd and Ameren, according to a consumer advocate’s analysis. (Daily Herald)
SOLAR: Opponents of a proposed 800 MW Ohio solar project may turn to the state Supreme Court to block the project after regulators denied repeated challenges. (WCMH)
COMMENTARY:
.svg)
