Commercial real estate firm CBRE Group and Altus Power developed a tool to identify on-site solar and energy storage opportunities to help building owners and occupiers meet their energy needs and reduce their carbon footprints.
The tool uses CBRE’s commercial real estate data platform and analytics to identify and model opportunities for commercial and industrial properties, community solar projects, and electric vehicle charging stations.
The real estate firm already collect data on more than 100 billion square feet of commercial real estate. Data include rooftop sizes and energy consumption information.
Using satellite imagery, the tool models building energy demand and potential power generation, and also identifies locations where solar energy and battery storage can be deployed.
A unit of CBRE plans a business combination with Altus Power that is expected to result in Altus becoming a publicly traded company.
In August, the California Energy Commission voted to require, starting in 2023, that solar and battery energy storage be included on many new commercial buildings, as well as high-rise residential constructions. Commercial buildings covered by the plan include offices, hotels, medical buildings, clinics, restaurants, schools, theaters, grocery stores, retail, auditoriums, and convention centers.
And earlier in November, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law bill A3352, which requires all new warehouses in the state to be built as solar-ready buildings. When first passed by the state legislature earlier this year, the bill defined a warehouse as any building 10,000 square feet or larger and that primarily is used to store goods for resale. That definition changed to 100,000 square feet or more.
Now, new warehouses built on or after July 1, 2022 will need to be optimized for solar. If the structure is intended to use hot water, then it also must allow for the installation of a solar water heating system.
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