Building Initiative for Low-Emissions Development Program - BUILD

BUILD technical assistance and incentive applications are being accepted. Please review the BUILD Program Fact Sheet for a program overview and the Technology Kicker Incentive Fact Sheets for details on additional program incentives based on technology that further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. See the Electrification FAQ for information on building electrification and the Heat Pump Overview for a summary on heat pumps.

Incentives

BUILD incentives are designed to support market transformation toward building decarbonization and reduce the up-front costs and perceived risk of adopting new technologies. Learn about the incentives and eligibility requirements.

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Technical Assistance

Technical assistance applications are now being accepted for low-income all-electric residential building planning, project fuel-switching, low-emissions building design and technologies, and incentive application completion and program participation. Recipients of technical assistance are not required to apply for a BUILD incentive, and applicants for the BUILD incentive are not required to use technical assistance.

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Announcements

Notice of Availability and Proposed Final BUILD Guidelines (Revised) – To be presented at the February 16, 2022, Business Meeting (*Please note all proposed guideline revisions are summarized in the Notice of Availability).
Notice of Availability and Request for Comments for the Proposed Final BUILD Guidelines - Comment response deadline is January 31, 2022.
BUILD Draft Program Guidelines Public Comment Period requires comment submittals to the BUILD Docket by 5:00 PM on December 15, 2021 at Submit e-Comment (20-DECARB-01)
October 25, 2021: BUILD Program Technical Assistance Provider Contract approved
September 15, 2021: BUILD Program’s Preliminary Program Design

Legislation

Senate Bill 1477 (Stern, Chapter 378, Statutes 2018), authorizes the Building Initiative for Low Emissions Development (BUILD) Program.

Program Development

Senate Bill 1477 (Stern, Chapter 378, Statutes 2018) directed the establishment of two building decarbonization initiatives and charged the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for implementation, upon which the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) initiated Rulemaking R-19-01-011 in January 2019. During the rulemaking, staff from the CPUC and the California Energy Commission (CEC) recommended in a joint Staff Proposal the CEC as administrator for the Building Initiative for Low-Emissions Development (BUILD) Program.

On March 26, 2020, the CPUC adopted Decision D. 20-03-027 for the creation of two new pilot programs: the BUILD Program, to be administered by the CEC and provide incentives for the deployment of near-zero-emission building technologies in new low-income residential housing, and the Technology and Equipment for Clean Heating (TECH) Initiative, to be administered by Southern California Edison. The CPUC oversees both programs.

In September 2020, CEC Staff submitted the BUILD Program Implementation Plan (revised) to the CPUC. The Implementation Plan outlined program design on eligibility, incentive structure, criteria for scoring and selecting projects, eligible technologies and process for evaluating new technologies, bill savings methodology, technical assistance, and outreach. On April 15, 2021, CPUC Resolution E-5116  approved the CEC’s BUILD Program Implementation Plan and established the submission process for the BUILD Program Guidelines to the CPUC.

On September 15, 2021, CEC staff introduced a preliminary program design for stakeholder feedback. Subsequently, Draft Program Guidelines were developed and made available to the public on December 1, 2021. After the consideration of stakeholder comments, Final Proposed Guidelines were provided to the public for additional feedback. Final Guidelines were approved by the CEC on February 16, 2022 and approved by the CPUC on February 28, 2022, in accordance with the process specified in CPUC Resolution E-5116.