![]() ![]() These new technologies are beginning to be adopted in rating systems and model codes. Energy efficient neighborhoods can be planned, encouraging green building development, on-site generation, the use of renewable sources of power, efficient distribution systems, and combined heat and power systems shared by multiple buildings. Energy efficiencies of this sort should be a part of the neighborhood planning process and integrated into local efforts that encourage sustainability through compact, mixed/use development. Such systems operate at a scale larger than the individual building, optimally among a large number of buildings in close proximity to one another where maximum efficiency is possible. Local officials are learning how to determine what types and mixes of buildings and energy uses should be incorporated into such a district and how to change land use regulations to facilitate district energy systems that involved on-site generation, combined heat and power facilities, and other technologies such as geothermal heating and cooling. ![]() These technologies are most cost-effective when used in mixed-use neighborhoods with a variety of buildings that consume significant amounts of energy, but at different times and for different purposes. Zoning overlay districts can be adopted that allow for district heating and cooling systems and on-site energy generation, technologies that are now readily available but that were nonexistent when most zoning codes are adopted. The significant loss of energy in transmission lines from remote plants is prevented by placing generation systems on site where the heat generated can be captured and used for heating and cooling buildings, so called combined heat and cooling. Trigeneration involves the capture of wasted energy lost in generation and its use to heat and cool buildings. While as much as 70% of electricity produced nationally is used by buildings, up to 80% of that energy is wasted at the point of generation or lost during the transmission of electricity from remote sites through the electrical grid. More on Professor Nolon and the Land Use Law Center at the conclusion. This post is based on Professor Nolon’s Shifting Paradigms Transform Environmental and Land Use Law: The Emergence of the Law of Sustainable Development, and Land Use for Energy Conservation and Sustainable Development: A New Path Toward Climate Change Mitigation, and also appears on Pace Law School’s GreenLaw blog. Advances in district energy systems and trigeneration technologies are making this possible, with energy consumption reductions of more than 70%. Here he explains how local zoning can embrace novel land uses that allow multiple building owners to cooperate to produce energy on-site and share power for heating and cooling. Nolon, a Professor of Law at Pace University School of Law, and counsel to the Law School’s Land Use Law Center, is a renowned pioneer in sustainable land use policy.
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