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The [Building] Electrification Imperative

Published Dec 09, 2025 /
BDC Presents webinar graphic

There are two key races in the energy transition: the renewables race to generate electricity, and the electrification race to supply final energy demand for heat, mobility, and other services. Alongside the momentum of the digital revolution, new technologies (electrotech) are accelerating the energy transition and building electrification.

On our latest BDC Presents – The [Building] Electrification Imperative webinar, featuring Ember’s Daan Walter and Building Decarbonization Coalition’s (BDC) Panama Bartholomy, we discussed why electrification is the more consequential race today.

Transforming Buildings Through Electrification

Check out the BDC Presents: The [Building] Electrification Imperative webinar recording and notes to learn more about how electrifying buildings can make energy more affordable, accelerate the clean energy transition, and unlock the largest economic opportunity of our time. Explore the fireside chat at the end of the presentation to dive deeper into the important role that electrification plays in making the transition and energy bills affordable.


The Electrification Imperative

Daan Walter, Ember Principal, shared great insights during the webinar about The electrification imperative report. Ember’s report examines market trends, geopolitical dynamics, policy gaps while positioning electrification as a central driver of decarbonization, energy security, and economic value.

Key Insights:

  • “This is the decisive decade that we’re in. …this is going to be the decade when the electrotech wave will start to come across the U.S., and so now we need to decide whether we are going to surf that wave, or we’re going to be dragged under by it.” – Daan Walter
  • “Electrotech is this exciting new rise of these new technologies on the supply side, demand side, and the connections in between…We are coming out of this century of evolution on electric technology, and we’re now going into this decade of revolution.” – Daan Walter
  • “Today, 75% of the energy system can now be electrified, and not just technically electrified, it can be competitively electrified. ” – Daan Walter
  • “Electrification can not only save much more money, by our estimations, roughly 3-5% of disposable income that we can actually free up with electrification. But you also just get new and better technology…” – Daan Walter
  • “The U.S. is the number one market for heat pumps in the world. For the past three years, heat pumps have been outselling furnaces, with sales of 4.2 million heat pumps in 2024.” – Panama Bartholomy

Report Takeaways:

  • Electrification is missing in today’s energy debate: Public debate, government targets, and corporate plans are focused on renewables. Today’s energy debate is largely missing electrification. Electrification is too often an afterthought.
  • Electrification hits home for consumers: While renewables can make electricity more affordable, electrification upgrades the everyday technologies households rely on—cars, heating, and control systems—delivering better value and greater savings.
  • Electrification is a huge economic opportunity: Global revenues of key electrification technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs) and heat pumps are already three times those of solar panels and wind turbines, and are projected by the IEA to be eight times larger by 2035.

Resources

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