Santa Barbara Residential Electrification: Roadmap to Zero Emissions by 2035

Residential natural gas appliances generate emissions which contribute to climate change and health risks. Electrification, the replacement of natural gas appliances with their electric counterparts, is one strategy to reduce these emissions. The City of Santa Barbara has a 2035 carbon neutrality goal, and existing building residential electrification is one component of its plan. To provide the necessary information for the City to move forward with electrification, the City proposed the current project: an analysis of the costs and barriers to existing residential building electrification and a roadmap to guide Santa Barbara’s existing building decarbonization. To meet these objectives, this project conducted a building stock analysis, stakeholder interviews, cost modeling, and program and policy research and analysis. This analysis was conducted using primary City land use, energy use, and utility data, as well as publicly available data sources. Key findings include barriers and opportunities for electrification, and the upfront and lifetime costs of different electrification scenarios. These findings contributed to the group’s final deliverables: a cost model and a comprehensive roadmap to electrification in Santa Barbara. The group created a list of prioritized program, policy, permitting, and communications recommendations. These recommendations will help the City electrify its residential building stock in an equitable and cost-effective way.

Acknowledgements

UC Santa Barbara Bren School: Dr. Matthew Potoski, Professor; Dr. Ranjit Deshmukh, Professor

City of Santa Barbara: Jefferson Litten, Energy and Climate Manager; Jon Griesser, Clean Energy Program Manager; Kristian Hoffland, Building and Vehicle Decarbonization Program Coordinator

Allen Construction: Dennis Allen, Founder

Rincon Consultants: Ryan Gardner, Director of Climate Action,

Dipaola Foundation

Diane Boss