Massive, Open-Source Building Dataset Now Available in Nationwide for Building Energy Efficiency Planning
Extracted from: https://www.blocpower.io/posts/eidc-blocmaps-dataset
BlocPower partnered with Bezos Earth Fund, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and leading U.S. universities to contribute to the dataset and have created custom software to serve energy leaders in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
New York, NY (April 27, 2023) —BlocPower, a leading climate technology company focused on greening America’s buildings, has partnered with philanthropies, universities and state agencies to expand the Environmental Impact Data Collaborative (EIDC) to include building data. The EIDC is a collaborative project managed by the Massive Data Institute at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy that provides data, data tools, and connections to help community groups, policy-makers, and researchers transform data into solutions that promote environmental justice and fight climate change. Now, thanks to BlocPower’s contributions, the EIDC is the largest and most comprehensive building data source in the country.
Data is power, and the open source EIDC is now backed with information including estimated energy usage, building characteristics, and potential for energy-efficient upgrades — data that is key to planning large-scale building decarbonization programs. Since it is open source, any organization, city or developer with the requisite skill set can use this data to plan and make real, impactful climate and energy improvements. In using this dataset, energy leaders in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. will have access to data and information like physical characteristics and modeled energy usage of millions of buildings, including energy-wasting buildings that can benefit the most from efficiency upgrades
BlocPower has already harnessed and built upon the power of the EIDC dataset in its software toolkit, BlocMaps. BlocMaps processed over 30 terabytes of data and imported over 100 million files to equip its partners with detailed climate justice-centered building data and visualizations at speeds 16,000 times greater than previously. With BlocPower, utilities, cities and states across the country are turning their building decarbonization goals into action.
BlocMaps helps states accomplish their goals by combining the United States Department of Energy’s Environmental Justice Screening Tool (EJScreen) and proprietary data with the EIDC dataset, aligning on the area’s specific goals and ingesting additional local inputs, such as a community-based social justice framework and previously executed incentive programs.
Then, in a matter of weeks, a custom visualization and recommendation toolkit is available for use. This includes detailed, dollar-value estimates of regional and national incentives, such as those in 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act, which energy leaders can view in a demo video. From there, BlocPower can administer building electrification programs, which they engage with their existing network of community organizers and utilize local crowdfunding vehicles. This allows energy leaders to create an equity-based building decarbonization program that leaves no community behind.
“In 2007 and 2008, I was Voter Contact Director in eight states for then-Senator Obama,” said Donnel Baird, CEO and founder of BlocPower. “I saw firsthand the power of combining data and community organizing with hope. We need these same elements to combat the climate crisis and green buildings at scale. That’s why BlocPower is so proud to send data and community organizers to great states like Washington, D.C. — the data and organizers will generate hope, just as we did in 2008.”
Energy leaders interested in unlocking this dynamic tool to meet their climate goals can answer a few brief questions and speak with a BlocPower representative. They can also explore the EIDC platform, which provides access to hundreds of datasets, code and other tools that enable real-time collaboration on cloud servers.
To access BlocPower data, municipal and sustainability leaders, utility companies, building owners and other organizations must create an EIDC account at https://redivis.com/. Afterwards, they will be able to access BlocPower data from the Datasets tab.
About BlocPower
BlocPower is the U.S. climate technology leader rapidly greening American cities. Since its founding in 2014, the company has completed energy projects in more than 5,000 households, commercial buildings and houses of worship. BlocPower utilizes its proprietary software for analysis, leasing, project management, and monitoring of clean energy projects. The company is backed by the world’s top investors, including VoLo Earth, Goldman Sachs, Kapor Capital, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Salesforce, the NY State government, Exelon, the American Family Life Insurance Company Institute for Social Innovation, Accelr8, and others. In 2022, Fast Company named BlocPower the #4 Most Innovative Company in the World.