Dr. Therese Peffer, the principal investigator of EcoBlock, will present the pilot project as part of Stanford’s Building Decarbonization Learning Accelerator webinar series on June 26 from 11 am–noon PT.
About the event:
Decarbonizing one house at a time does not match the urgent pace needed to rapidly reduce emissions and may bypass priority populations. EcoBlock is a pilot research project that explores decarbonizing buildings at the neighborhood block level with the aim to lift up all neighbors. Funded primarily by the California Energy Commission as part of the Advanced Energy Community program, the Oakland EcoBlock delivers needed home performance, electrification, and shared rooftop solar to 24 residents and a commercial unit in an older, diverse neighborhood. This talk will describe the technical details, potential economies of scale, outreach and education, development of a governance vehicle for neighbors to co-own the solar, and lessons learned along the way. EcoBlock highlights using the “neighbor effect” in accelerating the adoption of clean energy technologies, especially to historically hard-to-reach people.