The purpose of this solicitation is to fund applied research and technology demonstration projects that develop and demonstrate innovative, efficient, and environmentally-friendly approaches to provide space conditioning, refrigeration and water heating in buildings. Projects will develop systems with efficiencies comparable to or higher than today’s high-efficiency equipment[1][2], utilize low or no global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants, non-vapor compression (NVC) technology, or demonstrate load flexibility to minimize negative grid impacts. Technologies must be tested or demonstrated in one or more IOU service territories and in multiple California climate zones, as discussed in Part II, Eligibility Requirements. Funded projects must meet one or more of the following objectives:
- Develop advanced heat pumps using low or zero-GWP refrigerants.
- Develop advanced NVC systems for space conditioning or water heating.[3]
- Develop innovative approaches and technology to reduce refrigerant leakage in building mechanical systems.
- Develop and demonstrate high-efficiency California-climate-specific air conditioning and water heating technologies.
- Demonstrate load flexibility optimization for advanced heat pump technologies using a proxy price signal (hourly or 15-minute).
- Demonstrate cost-effective installation of demand flexible heat pump technologies.
Energy efficiency within buildings has made significant progress over the last several decades; however, major opportunities remain, including the use of heat pump and NVC technologies (e.g., thermoelastic, membrane, magnetocaloric). These technologies have substantial benefit over today’s existing technologies because of their ability to achieve higher efficiencies, and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Heat pumps and NVC technologies have the potential to respond to price and/or demand response signals to minimize cost and grid impacts and increase building load flexibility as a grid resource. Additional opportunities exist to maintain these higher system efficiencies by ensuring proper system refrigerant charge and reducing refrigerant leaks.
More than half of the GHG emissions from buildings come from burning natural gas or propane in space and water heaters since this is the predominant heating fuel in 90 percent of California homes.[4] As the future electric grid will be dominated by renewable energy sources, space and water heating will make up the majority of GHG emissions within building if gas remains as the predominant heat fuel. To meet the state’s GHG emission reduction goals, electrification of water heating and HVAC systems in buildings is a key strategy. However, current systems have high capital cost, often require major electrical infrastructure upgrades, and lack controls that enable utilization as a grid resource. This solicitation focuses on developing and demonstrating innovative, efficient and cost-effective approaches to overcome these challenges.
Projects in this solicitation must fall within one of the following project groups:
- Group 1: Low Carbon Space Conditioning (Applied Research)
- Group 2A: Low Carbon Water Heating (Applied Research)
- Group 2B: Low Carbon Water Heating (Technology Demonstration)
- Group 3: Advanced methods for refrigerant leakage prevention (Applied Research)
- Group 4: Heat Pump Load Flexibility in Existing Buildings (Applied Research)
See Part II of this solicitation for project eligibility requirements. Applications will be evaluated as follows: Stage One proposal screening and Stage Two proposal scoring. Applicants may submit multiple applications, though each application may address only one of the project groups identified above. If an applicant submits multiple applications that address the same project group, each application must be for a distinct project (i.e., no overlap with respect to the tasks described in the Scope of Work, Attachment 6).
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