Policy Podium: Auto Populating the MLS with EE and Solar PV Content

By Grey Lee

Thursday morning in Boston: 

Come join Carolyn Goldthwaite and Craig Foley for a deep dive into the MLS!

Listen to these two luminaries: Senior Manager of Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) High-Performance Building Team Carolyn Goldthwaite and sustainable real estate consultant Craig Foley on two projects road mapping ways to “auto populate” third party verified data about home energy labels and solar PV into the multiple listing service (MLS).

Carolyn will present information, about the Home Energy Labelling Information eXchange (HELIX). The project’s ultimate goal is to make energy use transparent, as well as to expedite the creation of large-scale home energy labeling policies and programs that support the market valuation of energy efficiency in homes. 

HELIX is a multistate project which is working to make home energy labelling information easily accessible to the real estate industry and consumer at the point of sale. Home Energy Scores offer home owners, buyers, landlords, tenants, realtors and lenders consistent and reliable information about the energy performance of listed homes.  With a growing market demand for energy efficient homes and support for home energy rating through efficiency programs and services offered in the Northeast, HELIX will make these ratings accessible  and will enable the range of market interests to readily incorporate and value home energy performance in financial decisions.

Craig will present information, about Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (LBNL) work to create a road map for multiple listing services to auto populate high-quality data about solar PV systems into the MLS.

The solar PV auto pop project has defined two pilot markets, San Diego and Massachusetts to look at project viability. The project is designed to support the goals of the SunShot Initiative announced in February 2011, by the U.S Department of Energy, which seeks to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of electricity by the end of the decade.

In January of 2015, LBNL released the most comprehensive analysis to-date finding PV systems consistently add value to homes when they are sold. In December of 2014, Fannie Mae released its Single Family Home Selling Guide, and in 2015 the FHA released its Single Family Housing Policy Handbook, both of which recognized PV as an asset that can add value and should be appropriately accounted for the sales process.