What is it about?
Net-zero energy buildings (NZEBs) have been considered as an efficient solution to limit the growing energy consumption and pollution emissions from buildings. The configurations and the capacities of the implemented renewable energy systems in NZEBs should be wisely selected to ensure the intended performance objective. This study aims to optimize, investigate and compare six renewable energy solution sets for designing NZEBs in three different climates: Indore (cooling dominant), Tromso (heating dominant), and Beijing (mixed climate). The optimization is carried out using a multi-criteria decisionmaking methodology. The implemented methodology is composed of two phases. In the first phase, the optimal sizes of solution sets in each climate are derived and analyzed. The effectiveness of optimal solution sets is evaluated with respect to economy, environment, energy and grid stress. In the second phase, recommendations for each region are offered according to the overall performance evaluation results. The evaluation criteria include life cycle cost, payback period, levelized cost of energy, CO2eq emissions, grid interaction index, load matching index, and total energy consumption. The analyses show that, in Indore (hot climate), it is recommended to utilize the solution set composed of air source heat pump for cooling and flat plate solar collectors for domestic hot water (DHW) production. In Tromso (cold climate), the use of a biodiesel generator is promising to produce both electricity and hot steam for heating as well as DHW use. In Beijing (mixed climate), it is recommended to utilize electric chillers for cooling and natural gas condensing boiler for heating and DHW usage.
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Why is it important?
• Renewable energy solution sets for net zero energy building are optimized • Hot, cold and mixed climates are investigated • Building performance is analyzed in terms of energy, cost, and CO2eq emissions • Load matching and grid stress analysis is conducted • Suitable design options for each climate are offered
Perspectives
1- The impact of cost assumptions including energy prices, investment and maintenance costs, discount rate, renewable energy technologies life-time, and calculation periods on the economic optimality and benefits of NZEBs. 2- The influence of uncertainty quantification on optimal design of NZEB for the adopted evaluation criteria. In order to guarantee a commercially feasible design, it is essential to provide reliable confidence limits for the optimal NZEB characteristics in the early design stage and not just annual simulations for nominal conditions. 3- Retrofitting of existing buildings towards NZEB performance from economic, environmental, and stress on the existing energy grid perspectives. Since the number of existing buildings is more significant than new ones, more concern should be emphasized on the strategies and technologies to convert existing buildings into NZEBs in different climates.
Dr. Fatima Harkouss
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Optimal design of renewable energy solution sets for net zero energy buildings, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Energy, July 2019, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.05.013.
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