Electricity from renewables is key to sustainably powering heating, cooling and appliances in buildings, and some technologies can also generate heat from renewable sources to supplement electric heating.
Renewable electricity generators such as solar panels can generate electricity to power heating, cooling and appliances in buildings. To supplement electricity, however, some technologies such as solar thermal heaters can also generate heat directly to help decarbonize thermal energy demand for space or water heating.
Increasing the share of buildings producing at least part of their electricity with renewable sources on-site supports progress toward zero-carbon buildings. Each new installation helps to displace fossil fuel-generated electricity and, combined with electrification, decarbonizes building energy use.
On-site renewables, combined with storage to ease the stress on grids, are important to meet the greater power demand expected as electrification levels increase. If they are installed on rooftops, they can also reduce the impact of renewable energy on land use, sparing acreage that is more suited for agriculture or other uses.
There is currently no global data available on the share of new buildings with on-site renewables, although for solar panels specifically, 25 million households used rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) in 2022, and the IEA Net Zero by 2050 scenario’s target for 2030 sees this number rise to 100 million.
Requirements to install solar panels on new buildings have emerged in places like California, France, Switzerland and Tokyo. Google has developed an Environmental Insights Explorer to help policy development around rooftop solar by showing rooftop solar potential in cities with satellite data. In the United States, Energy Star tracks on-site renewable energy production for commercial buildings.