The purpose of this solicitation is to fund an applied research and development project that informs California’s transition to an equitable, zero-carbon energy system that is climate-resilient and meets environmental goals. Applied research supported by this solicitation will evaluate the non-energy impacts of building retrofits, taking advantage of the opportunity to study the impacts and benefits of the Equitable Building Decarbonization (EBD) Direct Install Program. By leveraging the work of the EBD program, this research can shed light on previously understudied benefits and costs to low-income households. The expected outcomes include lessons learned to inform ongoing and future decarbonization investments and priorities.
There is up to $3,000,000 available for grants awarded under this solicitation. Match funding is not required for this solicitation. However, applications that include match funding may receive additional points during the scoring phase (see Scoring Criteria in Section IV F).
This proposed research will target multiple policy objectives of decarbonization, equity, improved air quality and health outcomes, heat resilience, and affordability. Researchers will work with a sample of homes that are selected for retrofits by the EBD Program administrators to study the impacts of energy-related interventions (electrification and energy efficiency retrofits).[1] Impacts will be studied in a diverse sample of households, including single and multifamily homes.
Applicants should demonstrate familiarity with publicly available materials related to the EBD program and with regional administrators’ approaches and make clear how the proposed research adds value and is not duplicative (for example, see Background Information below).
Research supported by this solicitation aims to understand impacts of integrated packages of electrified retrofits and must demonstrate the capacity for:
- Collaboration with California’s EBD Program to identify a study sample out of the homes receiving retrofits.
- Meaningful and justified sample size of homes.
- Identification of geographic region(s) of California in which researchers are prepared to conduct fieldwork.
- Applicant must demonstrate sufficient scope and flexibility to enable harmonization with EBD program implementation, details of which will be evolving and are outside the scope of EPIC funds.
- Inclusion of a diverse sample of homes in terms of housing type, climate zone, and geography (with two or more communities represented).
- Proposed plan for coordinated outreach for home recruitment and surveying to ensure EBD program administrator and research team communications with EBD participants are not duplicative.
- Development of metrics and analytical approaches to evaluate air quality and other impacts such as health impacts, comfort, heat resilience, and energy costs of the residents and/or homeowners.
- Applicants must discuss methods to measure impact metrics of interest.
- Applicants must discuss how this adds value to (and is not duplicative of) what has been proposed, and is being implemented, by EBD program administrators.
- Measurement of performance of new measures for indoor air quality and related impacts such as health impacts, comfort, heat resilience, and costs before and after the installations.
- Development of insights into what works and does not work for residents and/or homeowners and contractors to situate programs for success.
- Research to illuminate how to scale up an integrated retrofitting approach and the associated costs, barriers, and benefits of scaling up.
- Based on the field data and observations, articulation of strategies for reducing cost and enhancing benefits, communicating the non-energy and indirect benefits, and best practices for interested parties.
- Presentation of findings to the EBD Program.
Specific research projects may include:
To facilitate coordination with the EBD program, staff from the CEC will:
Development of metrics and measurement of other non-energy impacts to households, workforce, and other interested parties.
Support researchers' coordination with EBD program administrators to identify a sufficiently large sample of homes, with a range of retrofit packages, for researchers to conduct pre- and post-installation measurements.
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