ACEEE’s September 2020 brief, Programs to Promote Zero-Energy New Homes and Buildings, surveys 20 different zero-energy programs across the country, and discusses these programs and the push to construct homes and buildings that produce as much energy as they use. Such buildings fall into two categories: A zero-energy building is an energy-efficient building that, over the course of a year, produces an amount of onsite energy (typically from photovoltaic panels) that equals or exceeds the energy it buys from utilities plus the energy losses from generation and transmission. Zero-energy-ready buildings are typically highly efficient—efficient enough to be operated with onsite energy but lacking the solar energy systems needed to make the building truly zero-energy. A few programs promote zero-carbon buildings, which emit no net carbon over the course of a year.
The report finds that most of the programs surveyed focus on zero-energy-ready construction, while several have substantial zero-energy components. The programs are in British Columbia, Washington, D.C., and 12 U.S. states.