From Consumer to Prosumer: Buildings Enter the All Electric Society

When people hear all-electric society, their minds usually jump to, let's say, renewable energy or electric vehicles.

Buildings rarely make the highlight reel.

So let's fix that right away.

What role do buildings actually play in this vision?

So in the past, you know, buildings were seen, like you said, uh, maybe just as energy consumers, so nobody really thought about the other aspect of that.

But now, with this new approach, with this new view, buildings, they are becoming more of an active prosumer.

You know, they start to use more efficient, let's say, heat pumps for heating.

They started adding some solar panels to the rooftop.

So they are not just consuming energy, but they are becoming an active part in all this electrification topic, I would say.

Let's dig into that importance a little more, Borut.

Why are homes and buildings becoming such a central piece of the energy transition, and why now?

You know, the, the numbers that I will say now can, you know, change.

They can differ for 5 to 10%, but the reality is that buildings consume anywhere from 20 up to 40, depends on the report you look, of the global energy, and they produce, at least in the past, they produced a lot of greenhouse gas emissions because of the way they were heating itself.

So, you know, upgrading them now with some intelligence, with some smart technology, with the heat pumps that I mentioned before with... and putting the solar panels on top, they are actually lowering its own carbon footprint, and they, they are starting to help balance the power grids, what was probably also mentioned in the other podcast.

Now, Borut, here's the classic approach to building efficiency, as I, you know, being an amateur in this, understand.

Better insulation, more efficient heating.

Is that enough to hit our climate targets? You alluded to that not being necessarily enough.

You know, what does it mean when buildings need to become fundamentally smarter?

So, I mean, the insulation is definitely the first step, which was for many years neglected, and that's really positive way, and by that, you do lower your carbon footprint if you look at the old way of heating because you need less energy to heat your home up.

But that's not enough because it's just one part, and if you still use an older way of managing all your consumption in the building, you're just tackling one part.

So definitely you need some intelligence behind that, that manages the electricity that it's coming to the building from rooftop, that is going to the heating, that is going to the lighting.

So there has to be a system that manages this in a smart way and also a little bit based on what your lifestyle is.

Now, there are many different forms of energy and many different forms of energy that can go into a building, but electrification is becoming the new standard in buildings.

Walk us through the technology side.

What are the most important technologies driving this particular transformation?

When people hear all-electric society, their minds usually jump to, let's say, renewable energy or electric vehicles.

Buildings rarely make the highlight reel.

So let's fix that right away.

What role do buildings actually play in this vision?

So in the past, you know, buildings were seen, like you said, uh, maybe just as energy consumers, so nobody really thought about the other aspect of that.

But now, with this new approach, with this new view, buildings, they are becoming more of an active prosumer.

You know, they start to use more efficient, let's say, heat pumps for heating.

They started adding some solar panels to the rooftop.

So they are not just consuming energy, but they are becoming an active part in all this electrification topic, I would say.

Let's dig into that importance a little more, Borut.

Why are homes and buildings becoming such a central piece of the energy transition, and why now?

You know, the, the numbers that I will say now can, you know, change.

They can differ for 5 to 10%, but the reality is that buildings consume anywhere from 20 up to 40, depends on the report you look, of the global energy, and they produce, at least in the past, they produced a lot of greenhouse gas emissions because of the way they were heating itself.

So, you know, upgrading them now with some intelligence, with some smart technology, with the heat pumps that I mentioned before with... and putting the solar panels on top, they are actually lowering its own carbon footprint, and they, they are starting to help balance the power grids, what was probably also mentioned in the other podcast.

Now, Borut, here's the classic approach to building efficiency, as I, you know, being an amateur in this, understand.

Better insulation, more efficient heating.

Is that enough to hit our climate targets? You alluded to that not being necessarily enough.

You know, what does it mean when buildings need to become fundamentally smarter?

So, I mean, the insulation is definitely the first step, which was for many years neglected, and that's really positive way, and by that, you do lower your carbon footprint if you look at the old way of heating because you need less energy to heat your home up.

But that's not enough because it's just one part, and if you still use an older way of managing all your consumption in the building, you're just tackling one part.

So definitely you need some intelligence behind that, that manages the electricity that it's coming to the building from rooftop, that is going to the heating, that is going to the lighting.

So there has to be a system that manages this in a smart way and also a little bit based on what your lifestyle is.

Now, there are many different forms of energy and many different forms of energy that can go into a building, but electrification is becoming the new standard in buildings.

Walk us through the technology side.

What are the most important technologies driving this particular transformation?