In the US, the Transportation sector makes up 27% of greenhouse gas emissions*, and therefore, it has been the focus of several significant federal and state efforts to curb such emissions. For example, the Biden administration issued an executive order just last year that will require half of new vehicle sales in 2030 to be zero emission vehicles – including battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cell electric vehicles*. Followed by California, which became the first state to put zero emission vehicle goals into an actionable plan with the Advanced Clean Cars II regulations last August. This law is aimed at incrementally reducing the sales of new gasoline-fuel vehicles (cars, light and medium-size trucks) to 100% zero emission vehicles by 2035. Emission standards will also be tightened to mitigate the air quality impact from conventional internal combustion engine vehicles.
* Find out more about the ACC II regulations at California Air Resources Boards’ at https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/.
These regulations will likely be adopted by other states that currently follow California’s vehicle rules. So, with the regulatory push and growing demand for electric vehicles, how do we handle EV parking and charging? What are the code requirements and design implications for new and existing building projects?
DES’ Brent Takahashi, associate principal and project executive, recently participated in a panel discussion at the 2022 GreenBuild conference in San Francisco. The focus of the conversation was on the increasingly common requirement of “EV Ready” provisions in commercial and residential building and energy conservation codes across North America. Together with Deana Haynes of ChargePoint Inc. and two speakers from the building and transportation industries, Brent shared our own experiences and critical perspectives on these issues. Here are two key takeaways from this discussion:
California’s Green Building Standard and Local Cities’ adopted Reach Codes are pushing for more EV-ready parking and charging equipment for new construction projects. Brent mentioned that the 2022 CalGreen code (coming into effect on Jan 1, 2023) will increase the number of EV-Capable parking to 20% of total parking spaces provided for non-residential projects, as opposed to 10% in 2019 and 6% in 2016 code cycles. In addition to that, 25% of these spaces will be installed with electrical vehicle charging equipment. DES’ team also surveyed close to 40 municipalities in California with reach codes, and the EV requirements under these reach codes are even higher or will increase to catch up with the current state regulation. For example, one of DES’ new office campus projects in the South Bay will be providing 35% EV-capable parking (with conduit) and 35% EV parking with Level-2 chargers. This trend of tighter EV-ready parking regulations is also seen in other states.
Both developers and project users are demanding for more EV and EV-ready parking spaces. This is evident in our Sunnyvale office campus project – phase 1 of the project has only 2% installed EV chargers and that number increased to fully installed equipment for all required EV-ready in parking at the last phase. Brent offered a few insights on the design and planning of these EV parking spaces:
While there are different opinions about how existing energy grids can support this rapidly evolving EV parking movement, the panelists all agreed that it’s important to acknowledge the signals of increased demand early on. This change, as Brent pointed out, is clearly happening in California and other parts of the country (and the world!). Building and site designers are advised to take on an “over-planning, not over-provision” approach and collaborate with project sponsors to address these design challenges on Day 1. It’s always difficult and wasteful to take out what’s been built and re-do it again!
Here’s the link to an article about this discussion by ChargePoint Inc.
https://www.chargepoint.com/blog/understanding-ev-building-codes-designing-and-building-future-greenbuild
In the US, the Transportation sector makes up 27% of greenhouse gas emissions*, and therefore, it has been the focus of several significant federal and state efforts to curb such emissions. For example, the Biden administration issued an executive order just last year that will require half of new vehicle sales in 2030 to be zero emission vehicles – including battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cell electric vehicles*. Followed by California, which became the first state to put zero emission vehicle goals into an actionable plan with the Advanced Clean Cars II regulations last August. This law is aimed at incrementally reducing the sales of new gasoline-fuel vehicles (cars, light and medium-size trucks) to 100% zero emission vehicles by 2035. Emission standards will also be tightened to mitigate the air quality impact from conventional internal combustion engine vehicles.
* Find out more about the ACC II regulations at California Air Resources Boards’ at https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/.
These regulations will likely be adopted by other states that currently follow California’s vehicle rules. So, with the regulatory push and growing demand for electric vehicles, how do we handle EV parking and charging? What are the code requirements and design implications for new and existing building projects?
DES’ Brent Takahashi, associate principal and project executive, recently participated in a panel discussion at the 2022 GreenBuild conference in San Francisco. The focus of the conversation was on the increasingly common requirement of “EV Ready” provisions in commercial and residential building and energy conservation codes across North America. Together with Deana Haynes of ChargePoint Inc. and two speakers from the building and transportation industries, Brent shared our own experiences and critical perspectives on these issues. Here are two key takeaways from this discussion:
California’s Green Building Standard and Local Cities’ adopted Reach Codes are pushing for more EV-ready parking and charging equipment for new construction projects. Brent mentioned that the 2022 CalGreen code (coming into effect on Jan 1, 2023) will increase the number of EV-Capable parking to 20% of total parking spaces provided for non-residential projects, as opposed to 10% in 2019 and 6% in 2016 code cycles. In addition to that, 25% of these spaces will be installed with electrical vehicle charging equipment. DES’ team also surveyed close to 40 municipalities in California with reach codes, and the EV requirements under these reach codes are even higher or will increase to catch up with the current state regulation. For example, one of DES’ new office campus projects in the South Bay will be providing 35% EV-capable parking (with conduit) and 35% EV parking with Level-2 chargers. This trend of tighter EV-ready parking regulations is also seen in other states.
Both developers and project users are demanding for more EV and EV-ready parking spaces. This is evident in our Sunnyvale office campus project – phase 1 of the project has only 2% installed EV chargers and that number increased to fully installed equipment for all required EV-ready in parking at the last phase. Brent offered a few insights on the design and planning of these EV parking spaces:
While there are different opinions about how existing energy grids can support this rapidly evolving EV parking movement, the panelists all agreed that it’s important to acknowledge the signals of increased demand early on. This change, as Brent pointed out, is clearly happening in California and other parts of the country (and the world!). Building and site designers are advised to take on an “over-planning, not over-provision” approach and collaborate with project sponsors to address these design challenges on Day 1. It’s always difficult and wasteful to take out what’s been built and re-do it again!
Here’s the link to an article about this discussion by ChargePoint Inc.
https://www.chargepoint.com/blog/understanding-ev-building-codes-designing-and-building-future-greenbuild
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