Alameda City Council Approves Ordinance Requiring Newly Constructed Buildings to be All-Electric and CEQA Filing

The Alameda City Council approved an ordinance requiring all newly constructed buildings to be all-electric on June 1, 2021. This ordinance amends the 2019 California Energy Code to require newly constructed buildings to be all-electric with certain exceptions. Installation of infrastructure for electric appliances in mixed fuel buildings is required and it provides performance and prescriptive path options for all-electric buildings. Details about the requirements under the ordinance are included below.

For a link to the City Council staff report, please click here.

The Notice of Exemption for the City Council’s decision can be found on the City’s website, please click here.

Requirements

• All newly constructed residential and non-residential buildings are required to be all-electric, with certain exceptions as described below.

o   No natural gas or propane plumbing may be installed, and electric appliances are required for space heating, water heating, clothes-drying, and cooking.

o   Nonresidential, high-rise residential and hotel/motel buildings are required to install a solar photovoltaic system equipment over 15% of the roof or overhang, except for buildings with limited solar access, vegetative roofs, or where over generation would occur.

Exceptions*

• Cooking appliances for a commercial kitchen serving the public or an employee cafeteria in a newly constructed building.
• Non-electric space heating and process systems in newly constructed buildings containing occupancies F, H, or L. To take advantage of this exception applicant shall provide third party verification approved by the City that All-Electric process system requirement is not cost effective or feasible.
• ADUs constructed on a parcel with an existing residential building with gas infrastructure.
• Newly constructed buildings with a valid planning entitlement or Development Agreement approved prior to the effective date of the Ordinance.
• The Building Official may grant a modification to the requirements set forth herein, if s/he finds: (1) there is no all-electric prescriptive compliance pathway for the building under the Energy Code, and (2) the building is not able to achieve the performance compliance standard applicable to the building under the Energy Code using commercially available technology and an approved calculation method.

*If natural gas appliances are used in any of the above exceptions, natural gas appliance locations must also be electrically pre-wired for future electric appliance installation*