Holland City panel reviews building-energy targets, electrification incentives and contractor outreach

HOLLAND, Mich. — At a meeting of the Holland City Strategic Development Team on Wednesday, Oct. 8, staff reviewed progress toward the Community Energy Plan’s building-energy targets and outlined incentives and outreach to speed electrification of space and water heating, business equipment and small engines.

“Building energy consumption as you saw in the packet is one of the largest levers we have in the CEP,” said Andrew Reynolds, who led the presentation for city staff. He reviewed how the utility and building datasets feed the plan and the limits of different approaches to reducing carbon from buildings.

The committee heard that reaching the plan’s headline goals will require multiple strategies per building rather than single fixes. Staff summarized the targets that the 2021 plan set and the group discussed how those translate into measurable results: a roughly 20% reduction in building-related carbon by 2030; a 10% reduction in electricity (kWh) from 2020 levels; a 15% reduction in natural gas (therms) from 2020 levels; and a goal to convert about 5% of natural-gas energy use in buildings to electric supply by 2030. Reynolds noted that those outcomes depend on three variables: total energy use (kWh and therms), the emission factor for electricity,…