Harmonized Resilience at Roosevelt Village: A zero-emissions model for supportive housing
Association for Energy Affordability
Recipient
Emeryville, CA
Recipient Location
7th
Senate District
18th
Assembly District
$828,373
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
In collaboration with its many project partners, the Association of Energy Affordability has completed its goal of designing a zero net energy mixed-use affordable housing development in San Jose, California. The "Harmonized Resilience at Roosevelt Village" project will be fully complete in June 2025 with a Final Report for the project currently underway. The development design is composed of 69 single-bedroom and 5 two-bedroom units designed for senior living.
The research sought to determine a practical, scalable approach to solve the challenge by incorporating advanced technologies as a pathway to resilience and overcome common constraints that limit equitable access to distributed energy resources, including space, cost, and constructability. The project design demonstrates the breakthrough potential of energy storage, and load shifting solutions combined with a functional balance of thermal storage and thermal mass. The vision of the "Harmonized Resilience at Roosevelt Village" project was to provide meaningful resilience for vulnerable, low-income, and formerly homeless residents while meeting the challenges of tomorrow’s energy landscape. Informed by a robust feedback process with First Community Housing service providers, property managers, and residents, our project meets the minimum design requirements of the Challenge by integrating tested, reliable systems in a way that is both innovative for affordable housing, as well as cost-effectively and immediately replicable at scale for projects similar to Roosevelt Village.
This project was part of the Energy Commission's Next EPIC Challenge design-build competition (GFO-20-305). A project video, which was highlighted in the CEC's annual EPIC Symposium, can be found at the link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3msP6-DYlf4&list=PLIcSRKAeCVRjlZYqQRteN…
The Issue
Low-income households tend to spend a larger portion of their income on home energy costs. This is typically referred to as a household’s “energy burden.” High energy burdens can force tough choices between paying energy bills and buying other household essentials. Along with high energy burdens, low-income Californians have disproportionately higher rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses due to poor air quality. Within this community, these rates are even higher among children and the elderly, as well as other vulnerable populations. Low-income Californians are more likely to live in substandard housing where asthma triggers such as mold and pests are more prevalent; these triggers are further exacerbated by particulates released during heating and cooling. New, well-maintained buildings with electric appliances combined with solar energy production and storage can reduce both asthma triggers and utility burdens. However, energy codes don’t yet require electrification in existing buildings, and energy efficiency rebate programs are not sufficient to incentivize full electrification. With the rising cost of living, low-income households should be able to prioritize basic needs over the cost of utilities and medical bills associated with poor air quality. Additionally, increased resilience offered through battery storage and microgrids is needed for impending utility shutoffs due to aging utility infrastructure.
Project Innovation
This project designed a meaningful refuge for vulnerable, low-income residents while meeting the challenges of tomorrow’s energy landscape. Replicating the design of this project could increase access to clean energy and sustainability technologies within the disadvantaged/low-income community by serving as a demonstration of the leading-edge energy design strategies detailed in this proposal.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
This project design sought to optimize technologies and approaches to simplify the pathway to an all-electric future. This design will demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of shifting to all-electric and grid interactive designs and establish standardized configurations of building construction, energy efficiency, load management, and sizing for on-site generation and energy storage technologies. Proving that this is technically and financially feasible will serve as proof that an affordable housing mixed-use development can be resilient during grid outages, cut emissions, and produce cost savings for both residents and owners.
Reliability
The design of this project will prove that an affordable mixed-use development can be resilient to power outages and natural disasters, and that end users can still maintain access to electricity during these events.
