Energy Trust of Oregon Path to Net Zero Pilot: Pushing the Limits in the Oregon New Construction Market

Reducing human-induced global warming is critical to maintaining ecological stability. Directives to achieve a standard of net-zero energy use for new building construction projects have necessarily emerged, although a set of guiding design strategies to achieve this goal is still a thing of the future. In order to discover what these design strategies are, we need to try innovative new approaches now even with the risk of initial failure. To stimulate this innovation, Energy Trust of Oregon New Buildings is motivating the Oregon design community through a unique program offering. The Path to Net Zero pilot supports a select group of pilot projects to implement high-performance design in pursuit of significant progress toward net-zero annual energy use. Pilot projects that are able to achieve 60 % less energy consumption than Oregon code, through a combination of at least 50 % energy efficiency beyond code requirements and on-site renewable energy generation, are eligible to receive enhanced incentives for design charrettes, technical building design, equipment installation, and monitoring and reporting. Energy Trust will exercise some flexibility in applying cost-effectiveness protocols in an effort to encourage aggressive and inventive energy-efficiency strategies that may hold future promise for widespread, economical use. This paper will: 1) Predominantly describe the implementation structure of the pilot and 2) Briefly discuss early process findings and outline design strategies and measures that are being considered by pilot projects as they pursue high-performance design and net-zero energy