Embodied energy at an urban scale: A paradigm shift in calculations

Abstract

Embodied energy has long been a focus of research, and improved operational energy demands in modern structures cause the proper analyses of embodied energies to be critical for full building life cycle analysis. Many different calculation techniques exist to arrive at an embodied energy value, and literature is full of the application of these values to predominantly single or small numbers of buildings. Embodied energy at an urban scale is studied in this paper, and a new software tool for estimating embodied energy impacts at the design stage is introduced. Two case studies are discussed using the software, and embodied energies are calculated and presented in context with their operational energy savings. The importance of choosing an embodied energy value calculated according to the process-based hybrid analysis method when looking at the urban scale is discussed