Evaluation of Efficiency and Renewable Energy Measures Considering the Future Energy Mix

Syracuse, NY

Sustainable and responsible use of resources is required in order to mitigate climate change. Micro-economic goals usually consider the capitalized investment costs and/or the purchased energy but disregard environmental impacts. However, on macro-economic scale, the aim must be the reduction of the (non-renewable) primary energy (PE) use and of CO2-emissions. There is need for an appropriate evaluation method for comparing and ranking different passive and active building technologies, e.g. according to their impact on the PE consumption. National conversion factors for PE/CO2 differ significantly between different countries and are subject to change. Seasonal variations are not considered at all. The electricity mix is and will be influenced to a higher extend in future by the available renewable energy sources, which are hydropower, wind energy and PV with strong differences in daily and seasonal availability. Without presence of seasonal storage, fossil fuels will predominantly cover the winter load. The electricity mix is also influenced by the load: buildings, have a high demand in winter, and lower in summer. The share of electricity for heating is still relatively low, but will increase with the more widely use of heat pumps and electric heating. Hence, savings in winter will have higher value. This paper discusses - using a realized NZE multi-family building as an example - a PE evaluation method, that allows to include future development of the load (i.e. building stock) and electricity mix (share of REs) with seasonal variations and shows the impact on the ranking of different passive and active technologies.

https://surface.syr.edu/ibpc/2018/PE1/3