Energy Efficient Buildings RD&D

Program Background

Our government is investing $182 million to increase energy efficiency and address climate change by improving how our homes and buildings are designed, renovated, and constructed. $48.4 million is going to support the development and implementation of building codes for existing buildings and new net-zero energy-ready buildings through RD&D initiatives that:

• Accelerate development and adoption of technologies, design and construction.
• Provide more cost-effective solutions.
• Validate locally with real-world demonstrations.
• Build confidence for adoption of updated codes.

These funds will be disbursed under the Energy Efficient Buildings Program (‘EEB Program’) through a series of Calls for Proposals or Expressions of Interest. Funding under the EEB Program were accessible since 2018 and has now been fully allocated.

EEB RD&D 3^rd Call Finalists

The Energy Efficient Buildings RD&D Program closed their 3^rd call for project proposals in March 2021 after receiving 98 expressions of interest, which then underwent in-depth expert reviews. Seventeen companies were invited to submit full project proposals. After a stringent review process, eight projects have been selected, successfully completed the due diligence process, and entered into funding agreements.

Project Lead	Project Title	Location
Canadian Home Builders' Association https://www.chba.ca	Towards cost- effective net-zero energy ready residential renovations	National (10 municipalities)
City of Toronto https://www.toronto.ca/	Deep Retrofit Challenge	Ontario
Government of Manitoba https://www.gov.mb.ca	School Deep Energy Retrofit	Manitoba
Morguard Corporation https://www.morguard.com/	Deep Energy Retrofit of JET Building	Ontario
QuadReal Property Group LP https://www.quadreal.com/	Demonstrating a Scalable, Low- carbon Deep Retrofit for High- Rise MURBs	British Columbia
Greater Victoria Housing Society https://greatervichousing.org/	Sitkum Lodge Seniors Apartment Deep Retrofit	British Columbia
RSI Projects Inc. http://rsiprojects.com	ReCover Initiative: Panelized Deep Energy Retrofits of Municipal Buildings	Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan
Toronto Community Housing Corporation https://www.torontohousing.ca	Deep Energy Retrofit of a 1940’s-Era MURB	Ontario

Program Results So Far

Calls 1 and 2 of the EEB Program closed in September 2017 and February 2018 respectively, with 292 Expressions of Interest (‘EOI’) received and evaluated across 6 Scope Priority Areas. EOIs were received from every region of Canada, from a wide range of applicant organizations, requesting a total of approximately $485M in Contribution funding – 26x more than the funding available for these calls!

After evaluating and scoring all EOIs, the EEB Program invited 41 Applicants to submit full project proposals. Project locations and Applicant types were distributed as follows:

 

Final project selection was completed in summer 2018 and 12 projects were selected, which are anticipated to result in:

• 16 new buildings constructed, providing Net-Zero Energy Ready business cases.
• 4 deep-energy retrofits conducted.
• Demonstration projects resulting in up to 65% reduction in building energy consumption.
• 540 new residential units built.
• 40,000 m2 of commercial/institutional floor space developed.
• 3 nationally-applicable software tools implemented.
• All Canadian climate zones covered by the selected projects.

Expected outcomes of the selected projects include:

• Demonstration of a cost-effective deep energy retrofit solution for Nunavut, targeting 50% reduction in energy consumption.
• 3 demonstrations of new Net-Zero Ready buildings, supporting codes development and building market confidence.
• Demonstration of an innovative, cost-effective retrofit approach for social housing.
• BC-led demonstration program showcasing building performance at the highest level of the BC Energy Step Code.
• FEED study identifying the best approach to a zero carbon community energy system.
• Software tools to investigate pathways to achieving Net-Zero Energy Ready building designs, and to provide actionable information to reduce building energy consumption.

Resources