Navigant report says new builds offer the best potential to create sustainable housing

Colorado — A new report from Navigant Research examines how regulators, homebuilders, energy suppliers, and OEMs can together address residential energy needs with new technologies and business models.

The report provides strategies to ensure new builds meet the highest environmental criteria while bringing value to both the homeowner and the energy ecosystem.

Traditionally, home builders have seen energy technologies as a sunk cost needed to comply with customer needs or, in the best case, as luxury items to add to the perceived value of a property.

“New builds offer the best potential to create sustainable housing, as the cost of integrating energy technologies at the planning stage of a property development scheme is significantly cheaper than doing so as a retrofit,” says Roberto Rodriguez Labastida, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. “Also, new residential developments can be further optimized, taking advantage of the different behavior patterns of its inhabitants and the needs of the local grid. This optimization can bring value to the new homeowners, homebuilders, and the grid while proving growth for vendors and systems integrators.”

For stakeholders looking to succeed in this space, Navigant Research recommends that regulators allow for experimentation through rule exemptions for specific projects, while systems integrators work to educate the market about energy integration opportunities. Vendors should build compatible technology solutions specifically for this market, and financial providers should consider energy bill cost and savings in their affordability calculations. Meanwhile, homebuilders and landlords should explore energy revenue streams from their developments.

The report, New Home Construction Energy Integration, discusses how these trends affect new home construction and how regulators, homebuilders, energy suppliers, and OEMs can together address residential energy needs with solutions that go beyond a single home installation.

Stakeholders can adopt new technologies and business models to ensure new builds meet the highest environmental criteria while bringing value to both the homeowner and the energy ecosystem.

The study focuses on the following emerging strategies: self-consumption, landlord to tenant energy services, and energy communities. It also looks at case studies that highlight successful approaches and barriers encountered by energy players employing these strategies.