The Oakland EcoBlock, a UC Berkeley-led urban sustainability project, has demonstrated the first 25 residential and commercial units in a decarbonization pilot retrofitting effort in Oakland, California. PG&E has described the project as a first-of-its-kind neighborhood retrofit showcasing a net-zero energy, block-level microgrid to boost resiliency during wildfire season and power outages.

29 October 2026

Backed by the state Advanced Energy Community program, the EcoBlock pilot aims to prove the viability of rapid, equitable, and affordable greenhouse gas reduction strategies through urban block-scale retrofitting—installing shared, energy- and water-efficient technologies across a concentrated area. Selected as the Fruitvale project site in April 2020, this demonstration site was chosen to exhibit neighborhood-scale solutions like a communal solar-powered microgrid, shared electric transportation, and water recycling systems.

EcoBlock Timeline and Milestones

The EcoBlock project has reached several milestones since its inception:

In June 2022, 14 homeowners representing 25 units had signed the Membership Agreement to participate in the EcoBlock Community Association and start planning together.

That same year, the project completed a graywater system reusing laundry water for outdoor irrigation.

By 2023, EcoBlock had submitted all necessary applications to PG&E to begin electrification and implement the microgrid.

As of June 2023, PG&E had finished the engineering for the community microgrid design, a key milestone according to the project's latest updates. A microgrid shares energy between battery storage, solar power, and buildings to enhance resilience during blackouts.

EcoBlock Design and Technology

The EcoBlock project features an innovative shared ownership model integrating both community-owned and individual technologies:

Community-wide technologies: The original vision included a solar microgrid with shared battery storage, shared electric vehicle and EV charger, and communal rooftop garden. These assets could be paid for cooperatively.

Individual upgrades per home: Each participating house was to install an inverter linking to the microgrid, resident-owned batteries, and new electric appliances for heating and cooking.

Sherwood Engineers, which has worked on the EcoBlock, calls it a "first-of-its-kind urban community microgrid" representing a novel way for cities to boost the fault tolerance of the power system.

Status and Challenges

While EcoBlock has made solid progress on multiple technology installations and engineering milestones, several original plans have been delayed or modified:

What happened to the shared EV and charger? That detail appears to be missing from recent material publicizing the project's progress—it may be postponed or rethought.

Is the rooftop garden implemented, or did that idea hit an obstacle? Again, an answer to this specific question has not turned up in the latest updates.

That said, the team can point to the successful deployment of drinking and thermoelectric water systems for the site, as well as varied collaboration with PG&E on the microgrid's technical design. PG&E also supports EcoBlock as a model project for building out microgrid capacity across its network.

EcoBlock and the Future

The Oakland EcoBlock pilot offers a first crack at retrofitting an existing urban residential and commercial block with advanced technologies—creating a kind of "storytime" prototype for city blocks with specific issues in mind, like outage-prone communities.

By demonstrating a replicable model of net-zero decarbonization on the block level, integrated with resilience and shared ownership, EcoBlock has shown first that this concept is possible in Oakland, and outrageous that it was never tried before.