Speaking panel.

Technical Assistance Program

BayREN provides free engineering technical assistance to help local governments save energy and money while reducing their carbon footprints by moving towards ZNE/ZNC with their buildings.

The Municipal ZNE/ZNC Assistance program helps municipalities retrofit or construct buildings to meet zero net energy (ZNE) or zero net carbon (ZNC) goals by providing engineering analysis and recommendations for projects. We can review individual buildings or larger portfolios of buildings, and provide recommendations for broader policies as well.

Request Technical Assistance: Complete and submit this form to get started.

Pathway to ZNE/ZNC

Achieving carbon neutrality and ZNE/ZNC government buildings involves the following project strategies:

LED lightbulb.
Energy Efficiency

Save money when you use less.

heat pump water heater
Electrification

Move away from fossil fuels and prepare to power with solar.

sunsetting over solar panels and power lines
Renewable Energy

Get energy from clean sources.

Which Projects are Eligible?

Any new municipal building or renovation project that is planned or underway is eligible for free engineering support to move the project towards ZNE/ZNC goals. Projects must have an expectation of being implemented within approximately three years.

Based on your needs, BayREN will customize a scope of work to identify additional opportunities for zero net energy/carbon strategies and approaches for municipal projects.

Single-Building

BayREN technical assistance will provide engineering analysis to demonstrate the feasibility of ZNE/ZNC technology implementation for specific building projects.

Sample tasks:

  • Review building information, including energy usage over time
  • Conduct a site visit to assess building conditions, opportunities and challenges
  • Develop energy efficiency measure recommendations
  • Calculate the rough potential for renewables
  • Estimate costs, energy use and energy savings, and GHG reductions 
  • Provide recommendations for implementation
Building Portfolio

BayREN technical assistance will review municipal building portfolios to identify buildings with the greatest short-term potential for achieving ZNE/ZNC goals, and buildings where longer-term approaches will be needed.

Sample tasks:

  • Review municipal building energy attributes to prioritize selection for ZNE/ZNC 
  • Identify opportunities for offsetting entire municipal building energy load with energy efficiency and renewables
  • Develop municipal ZNE/ZNC strategy

Examples of ZNE/ZNC Projects

The following presentations and documents provide examples of how some cities have benefitted from BayREN ZNE/ZNC Assistance.