84 research outputs found
Modeling global and regional potentials for building-integrated solar energy generation
With the Paris Agreement coming into force, global efforts will need to maximize opportunities through energy efficiency and renewable energy generation. Zero energy/carbon initiatives are mushrooming worldwide, but it has not been fully understood which building types in which climates and under which conditions can potentially be built to net zero energy standards. In order to inform these efforts, a new model was developed to estimate the technical potential for building¿integrated solar energy (BISE, the name of the model) generation in a high resolution regional, climate and building typology breakdown., The BISE model also evaluates the opportunities for potential net zero energy buildings based on the BISE findigns, combining these with the findings of two global low-energy building models. The BISE model has a very high resolution in terms of geographic regions, climate types, building types and vin- tages. Moreover, the model combines methods for bottom-up energy modeling and geospatial analysis. The thermal building energy demand estimation is based on the 3CSEP-HEB model and the plug load scenarios are based on the BUENAS model. Results are wide, due to intrinsic limitationso of the model detailed in the paper, but it is shown that there is a substantial potential for building-integrated solar energy generation in all world regions, and that the Deep Efficiency Scenario allows significantly more building types to meet net zero energy levels by 2050 in contrast to a scenario when only moderate energy efficiency improvements are implemented.The work presented in this paper was funded by Central European University as part of a PhD research and through other grants. Special gratitude is expressed Dr. M. McNeil for sharing the data and their expertise on building energy use and energy modelling. The authors would like to thank Mr. D. Leiszen for his creative approach to developing software and visulisation parts of the model
CARBON MITIGATION IN HUNGARY: CHALLENGES FOR A SUSTAINABLE NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY
While on a world-wide scale Hungary is a key greenhouse gas emitter neither on an
absolute nor on a per capita basis, Hungary recognizes the significance of
limiting its
greenhouse gas emissions. This paper is based on the Hungarian contribution to
a two-year, ten-country research effort, funded by UNEP, aimed at developing a
state-of-the-art methodology for the understanding of the economics of greenhouse gas abatement.
This paper concentrates on the challenges of the implementation of greenhouse gas
mitigation measures. While Hungary has an important cost-effective potential for
reducing the emission of carbon dioxide by improving energy efficiency, the
implementation of this mitigation strategy is a complex and challenging task. The
implementation and financing of energy efficiency measures require the
concerted
targeting of close to 4 million households, and a wide variety of actors, including
banks, the industry, government, international and multilateral organisations, and
NGOs. Thus, developing an implementation strategy requires a clear understanding of
the existing structures, barriers, and experiences to date. This paper provides a
strategic framework for the implementation of demand-side energy efficiency, and
examines a case study, the tool of energy efficiency labelling and standards, within this
framework
World caf\ue9 method to engage smart energy-district project partners in assessing urban co-benefits
Urban energy-district projects introduce outstanding technological innovation in buildings and energy systems increasing sustainability in city neighborhoods. Such projects generate additional co-benefits for the city beyond changes in physical elements and development of social and institutional relationships (e.g. local employment, environmental quality, public health, property values, innovation attitude, etc.). Since exceeding main declared goals or not always clearly foreseen in the early project phase, these co-benefits are often not properly understood and considered. However, only their explicit recognition will make possible their inclusion in the assessment of the whole project\u2019s performance. From these considerations, this study faces the issue of engaging project partners in assessing co-benefits in order to consider a broad spectrum of relevant, positive effects in the evaluation process. Group knowledge and group thinking of this complex topic are investigated through the world caf\ue9 method, providing an atmosphere of trust and open discussions among participants. This empirical work lays the foundations to go beyond the mere economic measure as the sole criterion for assessing project effects, also including changes in end-user behavior and intangible asset
Heating and cooling energy trends and drivers in buildings
The purpose of this paper is to provide a source of information on thermal energy use in buildings, its drivers, and their past, present and future trends on a global and regional basis. Energy use in buildings forms a large part of global and regional energy demand. The importance of heating and cooling in total building energy use is very diverse with this share varying between 18% and 73%. Biomass is still far the dominant fuel when a global picture is considered; the role of electricity is substantially growing, and the direct use of coal is disappearing from this sector, largely replaced by electricity and natural gas in the most developed regions. This paper identifies the different drivers of heating and cooling energy demand, and decomposes this energy demand into key drivers based on a Kaya identity approach: number of households, persons per household, floor space per capita and specific energy consumption for residential heating and cooling; and GDP, floor space per GDP, and specific energy consumption for commercial buildings. This paper also reviews the trends in the development of these drivers for the present, future – and for which data were available, for the past – in 11 world regions as well as globally. Results show that in a business-as-usual scenario, total residential heating and cooling energy use is expected to more or less stagnate, or slightly decrease, in the developed parts of the world. In contrast, commercial heating and cooling energy use will grow in each world region. Finally, the results show that per capita total final residential building energy use has been stagnating in the vast majority of world regions for the past three decades, despite the very significant increases in energy service levels in each of these regions.The work is partially funded by the Spanish Government
(ENE2011–28269-C03-02 and ENE2011-13511-E). The authors
would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality
accreditation given to their research group GREA (2014 SGR 123)
and research group DIOPMA (2014 SGR 1543
Heating and cooling energy trends and drivers in buildings
The purpose of this paper is to provide a source of information on thermal energy use in buildings, its drivers, and their past, present and future trends on a global and regional basis. Energy use in buildings forms a large part of global and regional energy demand. The importance of heating and cooling in total building energy use is very diverse with this share varying between 18% and 73%. Biomass is still far the dominant fuel when a global picture is considered; the role of electricity is substantially growing, and the direct use of coal is disappearing from this sector, largely replaced by electricity and natural gas in the most developed regions. This paper identifies the different drivers of heating and cooling energy demand, and decomposes this energy demand into key drivers based on a Kaya identity approach: number of households, persons per household, floor space per capita and specific energy consumption for residential heating and cooling; and GDP, floor space per GDP, and specific energy consumption for commercial buildings. This paper also reviews the trends in the development of these drivers for the present, future - and for which data were available, for the past - in 11 world regions as well as globally. Results show that in a business-as-usual scenario, total residential heating and cooling energy use is expected to more or less stagnate, or slightly decrease, in the developed parts of the world. In contrast, commercial heating and cooling energy use will grow in each world region. Finally, the results show that per capita total final residential building energy use has been stagnating in the vast majority of world regions for the past three decades, despite the very significant increases in energy service levels in each of these regions.http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84907546254&partnerID=40&md5=59a9b6a2c8cfe25ef4fad1442a72472
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