Large commercial and residential buildings must overcome various hurdles before implementing deep retrofits or capital projects that help achieve building decarbonization. In this section, we address technical barriers and questions often faced by building owners and retrofit project developers.
Decentralized Systems and Tenant Equipment
Access to Occupied Spaces.
Lease Concerns.
Regulatory Limitations - Rent Stabilized Apartments
- The building owner is required to provide free heat and hot water.
- No mechanism to recover investment in new systems is necessary to achieve decarbonization.
- Buildings are capital constrained
Split Incentives (tenants pay for energy).
Infrastructure
High temperature renewable resources are limited and face hurdles:
- Deep Bore Geothermal
- Renewable Hydrogen
- Carbon Capture and Sequestration
- Biomethane
- Electric Boilers
- High-temperature thermal storage
- Hight-temperature industrial heat pumps
- Waste Heat Capture and Reuse
- Fission
Facade and Windows
Work must be completed at the end of facade/window useful life; very long useful life
Building code
Glazing reduction at odds with aesthetic/marketability concerns
Difficult installing with occupied spaces
Reduce Local Law 11 recurring cost via overcladding
- Aesthetic concerns
- At odds with historic preservation
- Capital intensive
- Lot line limitations
Technology Limitations
Need higher R-value/inch for thinner wall assembly:
Vacuum insulated panels
Aerogel panels/batts
Zero-GWP blowing agents for closed cell spray foam (nitrogen blowing agent needs to be more widely adopted)
Ventilation
Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV)
- Space constraints
- System tie-in point accessibility/feasibility
Rooftop Supply Air (Reznor) Unit Alternatives
- Heat pump alternatives to eliminate resistance heat
- Combine with ERV
HVAC Load Reduction (HLR) Technology
- Vent or capture exhaust gases
- Space constraints
- System tie-in point accessibility/feasibility
Central vs. Decentralized Ventilation Systems
Direct Outside Air System (DOAS)
Modular perimeter ducted air heat pumps:
- Competition for leasable space
- Space constraints
Ventilation Points-of-Entry
- Aesthetic concerns
- Lot line facades/building setbacks
- Competition with leasable space
- Space constraints
Heat Pump Limitations
Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF)
- Fire and life safety concerns about volume of refrigerant gas located within occupied spaces.
Regulatory risk from new refrigerant policies
PTAC and VTAC
Ducted Supply/Exhaust Air Source Heat Pumps
Domestic Hot Water
Central DHW Systems:
- Limited domestic production
Performance not confirmed by independent third parties
- More demonstration projects needed
- Decentralized DHW Systems
More open-source interconnection between devices/interoperability is needed to achieve energy distribution flexibility and capacity expansion:
- Air source that has a manifold connection to interconnect with water source or refrigerant gas distribution
- Interconnectivity/simplified heat exchange between refrigerants/water/air, etc.
- Other options and add-ons
Crossover Device or "Magic Box" Technology
Multi-purpose technology for heating, cooling, heat exchange and ventilation, filtration, and/or domestic hot water
Domestic production and supply chain is limited
Small players operating in this space
Technology is not tested over long operational periods
- Daikin, Nilan, Zehnder, Drexel und Weiss, Minotair, Build Equinox, Clivet
Zero Carbon Fuel Limitations
Green Hydrogen
Renewable Natural Gas
Low-Carbon Fuels
Biofuel
Biomethane
Renewable Energy Procurement Limitation
REC Purchasing
- NYSERDA monopolizes REC purchasing from renewable energy projects
Pending Carbon Trading Program Limitations
Deployment timeline is highly uncertain
Price per ton of carbon is highly uncertain and will likely be volatile/low based on previous emissions trading scheme outcomes