New tool can lead to energy efficiency
Marin officials say it aids climate change planning
Marin County officials say a first- of-its-kind tool to track energy use in Bay Area communities could advance efforts to reduce local energy use — and residents’ bills — while working to meet the county’s ambitious greenhouse gas emission targets.
The new Bay Area Energy Atlas is an interactive map that allows planners and residents to compare five years’ worth of electricity and natural gas usage from the county level down to specific census tracts. Users are able to break down the PG&E-sourced data based on various building types such as residential versus commercial, the size of buildings, when the buildings were built and residential income levels.
“It’s a new exciting tool that I think each county and city has kind of hoped for for years and now it’s here,” said Dana Armanino, principal planner of the Marin County Sustainability Team.
Using the data, the county can pick out specific neighborhoods that use more energy than others and target its energy efficiency campaigns there, Armanino said. For example, a quick search of the map shows West Marin residences use higher amounts of natural gas compared to residences in bayside communities such as Novato and San Rafael. From there, the county could send out mailers or schedule a workshop to bring more residents on board with programs such as rebates for switching out gas-powered equipment for electric equipment or installing smart thermostats or insulation.
Natural gas is one of the key greenhouse gas sources the county is looking to drastically cut in order to meet its ambitious emission goals. The county aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% below 2005 levels by 2030 and by 100% or more by 2045, which goes beyond the state’s own targets.
About 24% of greenhouse gas emissions in unincorporated Marin County were sourced from natural gas in 2018 — the latest data available — with transportation making up 31% and agriculture at 32%, according to Marin Climate and Energy Partnership sustainability coordinator Christine O’Rourke during the county Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday. Electricity made up 6% of emissions in 2018.
One method being considered is to adopt rules in 2024 requiring any natural gas appliances in need of replacement to be replaced with high-efficiency electric appliances, O’Rourke told the board.
The atlas was created by the University of California Los Angeles and the ninecounty Bay Area Regional Energy Network or BayREN, which is run by the Association of Bay Area Governments. The $375,000 tool paid for by state ratepayers is based on a similar atlas created by UCLA in the Los Angeles area years earlier, according to BayREN administrator Jennifer Berg.
There are limitations to the atlas. State customer privacy laws require the map to use more aggregate data of residential, commercial and industrial power use. The available data also only spans from 2013 to 2017, though Armanino said that should not significantly affect Marin County’s planning efforts.
“I am optimistic that it is going to give us a lot more insight and knowledge so that we can tweak policies, programs and resources to better fit our community,” Armanino said.
The tool also does not allow planners to differentiate between traditional customers and customers who are part of a community choice aggregation provider such as Marin Clean Energy. The team at UCLA’s California Center for Sustainable Communities, which created the atlas, stated they were unable to obtain enough data to allow for this, but future updates could make that possible.
Marin Clean Energy, which was the state’s first community choice aggregation program, is not providing data for the atlas at this time, but could potentially down the line.
“I think this tool provides useful insights about where energy is being used including by geography, income level, housing stock age, etc, which can be used to target program efforts and investments,” Marin Clean Energy director of customer programs Alice Stover wrote in an emailed statement. “Even for CCAs, who have access to the underlying energy consumption data, it’s a nice visual tool to draw meaning out of data.”
The Bay Area Energy Atlas can be found at https:// bayarea.energyatlas.ucla. edu/