ZNE Building to Become $1.3 Trillion Market

According to a report released this month by Pike Research, with green building becoming more mainstream, the ZNE building construction industry is expected to grow into a $1.3 trillion market by 2035, driven primarily by demand from Europe, where ZNE requirements are increasingly required.

While there may be a community of early adopter builders and designers in the U.S., Eric Bloom, Pike Research's building industry research analyst, sees states such as California and Massachusetts leading the way in the U.S. towards bringing building codes closer to a ZNE standard.  

Steve Galanter in our Customer Energy Efficiency and Solar division said this report demonstrates that current and anticipated future interest in ZNE buildings throughout the country is growing. SCE's interests align with this as we are pushing for economic integrated design and deep energy-usage reductions to ensure that this trend is market sustainable.

Read more about Pike Research's ZNE report here.

Introducing British Columbia's First Zero Net Energy Home

British Columbia's First Zero Net Energy Home (Source: The Globe and Mail)

Perched high on a hill in a Whistler neighborhood named Rainbow is a home with all the luxuries you'd expect from a new development in a popular resort -- and the eco-friendly bells and whistles that make it the first zero net energy home in British Columbia, Canada.

Built by Whistler's RDC Fine Homes, the 2,200-square-foot, three-level house features a solar photovoltaic system with six hundred square feet of steep solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity, to ensure the home creates as much energy as it consumes. With structural insulated panel walls, which use less lumber than wood-framed construction and help keep conditioned air in, less energy is required for heating and cooling.

Other attributes include spray foam insulation made from recycled plastics and vegetable oil to eliminate air leakage; high-efficiency, triple-glazed fiberglass windows that enhance energy performance; a hydronic pipe layot to keep floors warm in winter and cool in summer; and an energy-efficient HVAC system that recaptures the heat out of water going down the drain and recovers exhausted warm air from the dryer.

Learn more about British Columbia's first ZNE home here.