Bay Area Existing Buildings Study
Client: BayREN
Project Team: Arup (Prime), Resource Refocus, and Redwood Energy
Project Dates: 2023-2025
Project Summary
Arup, RR, and Redwood Energy recently completed a study of decarbonization pathways for existing buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area for the Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN). The study collected and categorized parcel-level data on existing buildings to identify the most common and important types of Bay Area existing buildings. For each prioritized typology, the study summarized key characteristics, including current GHG emissions and decarbonization barriers. Finally, the study developed pathways (e.g., equipment replacement, panel upgrades, load shifting) to achieve decarbonization by 2045 for each typology. RR led the residential analysis, including modifying residential models and results from NREL’s ResStock tool to evaluate decarbonization pathways. Project deliverables can be found on BayREN’s website.
Existing buildings DASHBOARD
The dashboard contains information about the existing building stock in the Bay Area by jurisdiction, including numbers of buildings by use, vintage, and size. It's designed to help city and county governments understand the types of buildings in their communities and spot shared problems and potential solutions for reducing carbon emissions from buildings.
Building Characteristics Analysis
The project report collects and summarizes the available data on building characteristics such as HVAC and water heater types, ownership types, dryers, cooking fuels, and more for common building types in the Bay Area.
The report can be found at: https://www.bayren.org/sites/default/files/documents/2025/BayREN%20Detailed%20Building%20Characteristics%20Report_Final_0.pdf