Strategic decarbonization for large commercial buildings

Unlike residential homes or small businesses, large commercial buildings cannot electrify by simply swapping their complex existing heating sources for more efficient heat pumps. While this presents challenges for widespread decarbonization, state and utility programs can help owners of larger buildings meet these goals with better strategies to electrify their systems.

Working with the University of Minnesota's Center for Sustainable Building Research, Slipstream will study an approach for strategic decarbonization of large, complex commercial buildings. Throughout the course of the project, the team will characterize commercial market segments, investigate pathways to electrification, and gather potential cost data for financial proformas.

Paired with best practices from other cold climates, the information from this study will inform our recommendations for ECO programs to create multifaceted approaches to the complex task of full-building decarbonization across a wide range of building typologies.

This research was made possible by a grant from the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Division of Energy Resources through the Conservation Applied Research and Development (CARD) program, which is funded by Minnesota ratepayers.