Residential & Commercial Energy Use

Bay Area Regional Energy Network

The Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN) is a regional collaborative representing and serving the nine Bay Area counties. BayREN provides outreach, training, technical assistance, funding, and resources to support local governments with their energy and climate goals. These programs are designed to fill gaps in energy, water, and resilience to provide regional-scale climate solutions that benefit those that live and work in the Bay Area region. 

Residential Programs

• Single-Family Program: The Single-Family Home+ Program is a rebate program focused on improving single-family home energy performance. The program provides free advising and access to a suite of energy efficiency and electrification rebates. 
• Green Labeling Program: The Green Labeling Program compliments the Single-Family Home+ Program and offers a rebate for home energy use assessments. The assessment helps homeowners gain information about their home to better inform decisions about cost-effectively improving home energy efficiency. 
• Multifamily Program: The Multifamily Program is a rebate program for multifamily property owners wanting to improve their property’s energy and water efficiency. This program provides free consulting from energy experts to find which energy and water efficiency projects fit best and provide estimated savings. 

Commercial Programs

• BayREN Business: BayREN Business offers small and medium businesses a way to cut operating expenses up to 25% with equipment upgrades to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units, refrigeration, and lighting for no up-front cost. 

For more information, please visit the BayREN website at https://www.bayren.org/. 

Residential & Commercial Energy Use Projects

• The Town enrolled in MCE (formerly Marin Clean Energy) in July 2017, a Community Choice Aggregation Program serving a number of communities in the Bay Area, in order to provide Moraga’s residents and businesses the ability to select the source of their electricity supply. The current electricity options MCE offers are "Light Green" (50% from renewable sources) and "Deep Green" (100% renewable - zero emissions). PG&E’s default option is 33% renewable, while it also offers a 100% renewable option called "Solar Choice."
  
  In April 2018, all 6,417 existing residential and commercial electric accounts in Town were automatically enrolled in MCE and provided with the ability to opt out at any time. As of December 2018, 5,740 of those accounts, or 89.9%, were still enrolled and, of that total, 1.33% of customers were enrolled in the Deep Green program. The change of approximately 90% from 33% renewables to 50% renewables equates to an estimated 17% reduction in electricity related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
  
  
• The state’s Green Building Standards Code (also known as "CALGreen"), mandates various statewide energy efficiency and water conservation measures for all new construction and promotes healthy indoor and outdoor air quality in accordance with the provisions of AB 32. CALGreen underwent regular triennial updates in both 2015 and 2018. These updates included new standards aimed at further reducing energy consumption in all new or remodeled buildings, recycling construction waste materials, reducing water use, promoting the development of renewable energy systems (such as rooftop solar) and requiring low-emissions interior finish materials such as paint and carpet.
  
  The Town adopted by reference all applicable CALGreen building standards as well as additional, more restrictive standards pertaining specifically to Contra Costa County in late 2015 by adopting by reference Contra Costa County Ordinance Number 2016-22 in January 2017. Since that time, all new construction in Moraga has had to adhere to CALGreen standards. By adopting CALGreen and County Ordinance Number 2016-22, the Town was able to effectively implement several strategies in both the Residential Energy Use and Commercial Energy Use Sections of the CAP.