Bay Area Exisitng Buildings Study

Client: BayRen

Project Team: Resource Refocus, and ARUP

Project Dates: 2023-2025


Project Summary

Arup, RR, and Redwood Energy are currently studying decarbonization pathways for existing buildings in the Bay Area for BayREN. The study is collecting and categorizing parcel-level data on existing buildings to identify the most common and important types of Bay Area existing buildings. The study is then summarizing the characteristics of these prioritized typologies, including their current GHG emissions and decarbonization barriers. Finally, the study is developing pathways (e.g., equipment replacement, panel upgrades, load shifting) to achieve decarbonization by 2045 for each typology. RR is leading the residential analysis, including modifying residential models and results from NREL’s ResStock tool to evaluate decarbonization pathways. The project is currently underway and expected to be complete in early 2025.


Existing buildings DASHBOARD

This dashboard provides the most complete overview of Bay Area buildings available, showing data on building categories, age, ownership status, and energy usage intensity (EUI) across different local jurisdictions. 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. Its complements the data found in the Existing Buildings Dashboard by identifying common building types that impact the implementation of decarbonization meausres, and the east of retrofits, including:

  • Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) prevalence, type, and location

  • Water heater type and location

  • Building wall, roof, floor, and window (collectively referred to as envelope) characteristics

  • Appliance types, such as fuels used for cooking

  • Electrical panelboard size

  • Rooftop solar panel installations

  • Electric vehicle prevalence

The report can be found at: https://www.bayren.org/sites/default/files/documents/2025/BayREN%20Detailed%20Building%20Characteristics%20Report_Final_0.pdf