Woolsey Gardens
Project Update
During 2025, the project achieved several significant milestones. The grant award was fully executed on June 13, enabling progress on key tasks. Subcontractor agreements were finalized with Clean Coalition, Solomon Cordwell Buenz, and Tier 2 partners. The design team completed the value engineering phase, reducing projected construction costs by over $10 million and lowering embodied carbon by nearly 20% while maintaining energy targets. Additionally, the team began remobilizing the design and development process, prepared design development drawings, and initiated re-pricing based on revised schematic designs to address tariff and material availability issues. These steps position the project to move into procurement planning and updated financial modeling.
The Issue
The project tackles California’s dual challenge of affordable housing shortages and meeting carbon neutrality goals by 2045. It focuses on creating Woolsey Gardens, a mixed-use, all-electric development in Berkeley that provides permanently affordable housing for low-income households while integrating advanced energy technologies such as solar PV, battery storage, microgrids, and demand flexibility systems. The initiative aims to reduce energy costs, improve reliability, and enhance health outcomes, serving as a replicable model for sustainable, zero-carbon communities that address housing and climate needs simultaneously.
Project Innovation
The project’s innovation lies in creating a replicable model for zero-carbon, affordable housing that integrates advanced energy technologies and sustainable construction practices. Woolsey Gardens will feature an all-electric design supported by a solar photovoltaic system, a 250 kW battery energy storage system, and a microgrid with energy management software. It will also include electric vehicle charging infrastructure, demand flexibility equipment, and smart circuit breaker panels to optimize energy use during peak periods. Additionally, the project employs mass timber construction to reduce embodied carbon and aims for LEED Platinum certification. By combining these cutting-edge technologies with affordability and resilience, the development demonstrates how future multifamily housing can simultaneously address climate goals, reduce costs, and improve reliability for vulnerable communities.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
The project is expected to deliver multiple benefits for both residents and ratepayers. It will improve electricity reliability and safety by incorporating on-site solar generation, battery storage, and a microgrid with islanding capabilities, reducing dependence on the grid during peak demand and outages. These features will lower energy costs for tenants and operational costs for property owners while eliminating on-site natural gas use, which enhances indoor air quality. Additionally, the project will provide valuable data on the performance and cost-effectiveness of advanced energy technologies, supporting future building decarbonization efforts and informing updates to California’s energy codes and standards. By demonstrating a scalable, zero-carbon housing model, it promotes affordability, resilience, and climate-aligned development statewide.
Affordability
Lower energy costs for tenants and reduced operational costs for property owners.
Reliability
Improved electricity reliability through on-site solar generation, battery storage, and a microgrid with islanding capability.
Safety
Enhanced safety and resilience during grid outages by providing emergency power through the microgrid.
Key Project Members
Subrecipients
Match Partners
