LEED v4 2024 Energy Update: Key Changes Explained
Written by Bhakti Dave, Building Performance Engineer at Zero Envy.
Effective March 1, 2024, the LEED v4 energy update introduces significant changes to Energy and Atmosphere (EA) prerequisites and credits. This article breaks down the key changes based on review of LEED articles, new reference guide language, associated calculator tools and our team’s experience on a few projects.
The changes apply to the following, which both have revised credit language and supporting calculators:
Minimum Energy Performance Prerequisite
Optimize Energy Performance Credits
While the Renewable Energy Production Credit language did not change, there are new considerations related to location and metrics.
Key Updates at a Glance
Higher Standards for Energy Performance: Minimum requirements and points earned based on energy performance have both been raised requiring higher performance to meet the same levels of LEED certification.
Updated Performance Metrics: Projects must choose to use either energy cost or source energy for one metric, and must use greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions metrics as a second.
Preference for On-Site Renewables: While the Renewable Energy Production Credit remains unchanged, renewable energy contributions must be on-site to obtain full credit in the energy performance prerequisite and credit, and consistent metrics must be used.
Key Changes Explained
Higher Standards for Energy Performance
As stated by USGBC, the update “increases performance improvement thresholds in alignment with LEED v4.1 stringency”. This definitely raises the bar in terms of performance across rating systems and both the energy performance prerequisite (minimum requirements) and the credit (where points are earned).
The chart below illustrates the change in stringency for the main LEED v4 BD+C prerequisite requirements and LEED point thresholds. The prerequisite increases from 5 to 10% improvement over 90.1-2010, and each LEED point requires roughly 15-20% greater improvement than the previous version. The actual impact may vary, however, based on the newly introduced metrics discussed below.
Approximate change in % improvement in LEED v4 2024 Energy Update versus the prior version. (Source: usgbc.org)
Updated Performance Metrics
This energy update also introduced two new metrics: source energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to be evaluated alongside the historical metric of energy cost. It took some digging into various calculators to fully understand the metrics and various conversion factors to be used, but these are summarized below.
The metrics to be evaluated in projects using the Energy Update are as follows:
Energy Cost: Determined as site energy multiplied by anticipated utility rates. Options are as follows:
Published average rates based on eia.gov in the US, or
Actual rate tariffs that apply to the project modeled based on the simulation results.
Source Energy: Source energy is calculated by applying energy measured at the building by conversion factors that account for upstream losses such as extraction, generation, distribution, etc. LEED prescribes the following options based on the updated Minimum Energy Performance Calculator:
Nationwide rates from USA EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, or
“ASHRAE References” which appear to align with 90.1-2022 Appendix I in the US
GHG Emissions: Greenhouse gas emissions are measured in CO₂ equivalent and account for the emissions at the source based on energy used at the site. LEED prescribes the following options for GHG emissions factors:
ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager rates - nationwide averages for all except electricity which are by eGRID subregion in the US, or
Hourly emissions factors for electricity using data from NREL’s Cambium dataset by using the “LEED Hourly Cambium, Demand Adjusted Hourly Energy Metrics” calculator tool.
In order to choose the optimum metrics, projects in the US should be considering all six variations of the three metrics and multiple data sources for each, as described above. Projects outside the US are directed to use rates published by the closest equivalent organization. To understand which metrics are used in the various energy credits, consider the following:
EA Prerequisite: Minimum Energy Performance
Projects can demonstrate compliance using any of the three metrics: energy cost, source energy, or GHG emissions.
EA Credit: Optimize Energy Performance
Points are awarded based on percentage improvements in both energy cost/source energy and GHG emissions.
GHG emissions carry slightly stricter thresholds, emphasizing decarbonization goals.
EA Credit: Renewable Energy Production
The metric for this credit must match the primary metric chosen for EA Credit: Optimize Energy Performance (either cost or source energy).
Tiered Contributions for Renewables
The Energy Update applies the concept of “tiers” from LEED v4.1 where the contribution of renewable energy systems varies based on whether it’s on or off the project site.
EA Prerequisite: Minimum Energy Performance
On-site renewable energy can offset proposed building performance, but new off-site/community renewables cannot.
EA Credit: Optimize Energy Performance
On-site renewables can offset performance for all metrics, while off-site/community renewables can only offset performance of GHG Emissions metric.
Project Example: University of the Pacific, Southwest Hall
The University of the Pacific’s Southwest Hall in Stockton, CA, is a new residential building combining historic design elements with modern methods and sustainability.
Project Highlights:
A three-story structure featuring suite-style accommodations, study lounges, and a 119 kW rooftop photovoltaic (PV) array.
All-electric design with air source heat pumps for space heating and cooling, energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) for ventilation, and centralized air source heat pumps for domestic water heating.
Building Consumption (pre-renewables): 46.4% site energy use improvement over the ASHRAE 90.1-2010 baseline.
Net Consumption (post-renewables): 57.7% improvement, with on-site renewables accounting for 21.2% of total energy use.
LEED Points Comparison
The comparison of LEED points between LEED v4 and the LEED v4 energy update for the case study model is shown below.
Optimize Energy Performance points for case study project before and after 2024 Energy Update.
Why the change? The 2024 Energy Update awarded fewer points based on the more stringent thresholds and impact of the other impacts described in this article. The actual impacts for a given project will depend on many factors and should be evaluated by the project team. The good news is that the introduction of new metrics allow for more potential options to explore, albeit requiring additional effort by the energy modeler.
Simplifying the Process: LEED Report Card
To streamline energy performance calculations, Zero Envy has developed the LEED Report Card, a software tool that automates LEED energy reporting for those using IES Virtual Environment energy modeling software. The tool extracts relevant data from the energy model using the VE Python API and sends it to the cloud. This data is analyzed and presented to the user in all the available LEED metrics, recommending the path that leads to the most points earned. Projects outside of the US or those using custom energy or GHG emissions factors can provide these for use as well.
To try out this tool for yourself, go to the BEM ToolBox website and create a free account. The LEED Report Card tool will be available to users early in 2025.
LEED Resources
For a deeper dive into all of these changes, refer to the LEED resources below:
LEED v4 energy update basics (link): This article provides a high-level summary and reasons for the changes.
Applying the LEED v4 energy update to your project (link): This article gets into a little more detail than the previous one.
Minimum Energy Performance (2024 Update) Prerequisite language (link)
Optimize Energy Performance (2024 Update) Credit language (link)
Minimum Energy Performance Calculator (2024 Update) (link): Updated spreadsheet to align with the 2024 update, including result metric calculations and conversion factors.
Hourly Cambium, Demand Adjusted Energy Metrics Calculator (link): This spreadsheet calculator can be used to calculate hourly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for electricity using NREL Cambium data by copying 8760 hourly data into the spreadsheet tool.
Have questions, comments, or did you find a dead hyperlink? Let us know at hello@zeroenvy.com.