Minimizing Energy Consumption, Energy Poverty and Global and Local Climate Change in the Built Environment: Innovating to Zero: Causalities and Impacts in a Zero Concept World

By Matthaios Santamouris

Minimizing Energy Consumption, Energy Poverty and Global and Local Climate Change in the Built Environment: Innovating to Zero analyzes three major issues of the built environment, including the political, economic and technical contexts, the impacts of global and local climate change, and the technical and social characteristics of energy poverty. In addition, the book addresses the causes and reasons for the magnitude and characteristics of the built environment’s energy consumption.

Users will find a fresh view of energy consumption in the built environment, especially in relation to energy poverty and climate change from the ZERO energy world perspective.

• Presents and analyzes over twenty specific linkages and causalities between energy consumption, climate change and energy poverty
• Describes the state-of-the-art regarding the energy consumption of buildings in Europe and recent trends and characteristics
• Explores how can we transform problems into opportunities
• Examines how we can increase the added value of technological, economic and social interventions to generate wealth and offer employment opportunities

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Release date: Oct 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9780128114186

Matthaios Santamouris

M. Santamouris is Professor of High Performance Architecture at UNSW, and Professor in the University of Athens, Greece. Visiting Professor : Cyprus Institute, Metropolitan University London, Tokyo Polytechnic University, Bolzano University, Brunnel University and National University of Singapore. Past President of the National Center of Renewable and Energy Savings of Greece. Editor in Chief of the Energy and Buildings Journal, Past Editor in Chief of the Advances Building Energy Research, Associate Editor of the Solar Energy Journal and Member of the Editorial Board of 14 Journals. Editor of the Series of Book on Buildings, published by Earthscan Science Publishers. Editor and author of 14 international books published by Earthscan, Springer, etc. Author of 320 scientific articles published in journals. Reviewer of research projects in 29 countries including USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Sweden, etc.

Book preview

support.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Abstract

Buildings is one of the more important economic sectors. The chapter discusses the main benefits and drawbacks of the sector and provides and provides an overview of the main challenges and opportunities associated to the three major problems identified: The high energy consumption of buildings, local and global climate change and energy poverty.

Keywords

Buildings; energy consumption building sector; energy poverty; urban heat island and climate change

The Built Environment: Characteristics, Problems, Prospects and Future Needs

Building is one of the more dynamic economic sectors. Its main function and role is to protect human beings and ensure their quality of life. Buildings, and the construction sector in general, have an enormous potential to generate income and wealth and to create employment, but also to consume energy and resources and to produce pollution and waste. Additionally, it affects the local and global climate, while it is strongly associated with problems of poverty and vulnerability, at least for a large part of the population.

Buildings and construction are inherently dynamic. They act as one of the main promoters of major future development trends in technology and society, aiming to improve people’s quality of life of and transform human societies. The building sector plays a very significant role in global economic activities. The sector is associated with several financial and commercial activities dealing with the management, construction, renovation and the extension of assets in the built environment, including buildings, open spaces and infrastructure. According to IHS Economics (2013), the total budget of the construction industry in 2013 exceeded USD$8.2 trillion, while forecasts for 2025 predict a total budget of close to USD$15 trillion (Global Construction Perspectives and Global Economics 2013). About USD$3 trillion are spent in the residential building sector, USD$2.7 trillion on infrastructure, and USD$2.5 trillion for commercial buildings (IHS Economics, 2013). Concerning the sources of investments, about 70% of the total budget is covered by the public sector and 26% by the private sector, while the rest is invested by official development assistance sources (BWI, 2006a, 2006b).

Buildings and construction generate almost 13% of global GDP, and this figure is expected to increase to 15% by 2020 (Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics, 2013). About 35% of global construction output is in the so-called developing nations, and is expected to increase to 55% in 2020. The major players in the construction sector are countries with emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India, which are experiencing a very rapid increase in population, urbanization and the improvement of living standards (Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics, 2013). As well as their direct impact on and contribution to the global economy, buildings also contribute in indirect ways, influencing several industrial sectors through very well-defined growth linkages. The building sector presents a very high multiplier factor for the global economy. Industries that benefit from the construction sector include the manufacturing of components and materials, the production and exploration of energy and the development of equipment and machinery, as well as many other associated industries.

Parallel to the contribution of the building sector to the economy, the building sector is a very labor intensive sector, contributing a high number of jobs per investment. As mentioned by WIEGO (2015), the construction sector counts as the second most important employer in the world after agriculture. According to official statistical data, the construction sector employs more than 110 million people. Almost 75% of this is in developing countries where employment in the construction sector remains undeclared, and so the number may be much higher. It is characteristics that in India about 89% of the men and 97% of the women working in the building-construction sector are considered to be employees working under informal conditions (Pais, 2002). According to BWI (2006b), the total number of workers (both declared and undeclared) in the construction sector may exceeds180 million.

As mentioned, the construction sector presents an important multiplier factor for the global economy and the employment market. It is well accepted that for each new job in the construction sector many new jobs are also generated in the global economy. In the United States, for each new house built, almost 2.97 new jobs are generated (Emrath, 2015). About 1.76 jobs are directly associated with construction specifically, while the rest are created in the global economy in an indirect way. The industrial sectors that benefit the most from increased employment are manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, warehousing and transportation real estate, services, and finance and insurance. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB, 2015 has performed a study and estimated the impact of building 100 single family houses in a typical zone of the United States. They have estimated the impact of the construction activity (A), the effect of investment and the corresponding tax revenue (B), and the ongoing effect when the building is occupied (C). It is reported that during the three above phases, almost 463 new jobs are created, out of which only 185 are directly associated with the construction activity.

While the building and construction sector contributes highly to generating wealth and improving the quality of life of citizens, it is also associated with several negative impacts. Most of the problems created by the building sector are related to environment, energy, local and global climate change and human vulnerability. The main negative impacts and problems are:

a. Buildings are the highest consumer of energy, accounting for about 30%–40% of the total consumption on the planet (UNEP, 2012). Especially when the required energy for construction and demolition is counted, buildings are responsible for about 50% of the total energy consumption. The following chapters provide a detailed discussion about the energy consumption of the building sector and its characteristics. The global energy consumption by the building sector in 2010 was close to 23.7 PWh, while the International Energy Agency estimates that by 2040, consumption will increase tremendously in the developing countries and will reach 38.4 PWh (IEA, 2013).

b. The building sector is highly responsible for global and local climate change. According to UNEP (2012), the sector is liable for about 38% of the total greenhouses gas emissions. In parallel, buildings are responsible for the development of the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon that increases the temperature in the dense part of cities. UHIs have significant impact on the amount of energy consumed for cooling, increase the concentration of harmful pollutants, deteriorate indoor and outdoor thermal comfort conditions, increase the ecological footprint of cities, and increase heat related mortality and morbidity (Santamouris, 2015).

c. Buildings have a serious impact on the global environment as they consume resources and produce pollution and waste. In parallel, buildings consume a very high quantity of raw materials and resources. They use almost three billion tons of raw materials per year, which represents almost 40%–50% of the total material use in the world (Hultgren, 2011). Additionally, the building sector consumes almost 12% of the total potable water in the world, and about 70% of the timber products, while is responsible for about 20%–25% of air pollutants, 70% of halocarbons, 25%–33% of the emissions of black carbon, 50% of landfill waste and 40% of the pollution of potable water (UNEP, 2012; BIMHow, 2015; IIASA, 2015).

d. There is a very serious deficit of adequate housing. The construction and building sector is facing the significant challenge of providing appropriate shelter for more than 1.6 billion people currently living in inadequate conditions in informal houses without proper sanitation (UN–Habitat, 2011). There are more 863 million people living in slums, and UN–Habitat (2013) forecasted that this number will increase to 1 billion by 2020. The demand for new urban dwellings is so high in the developing world that almost 20%–30% of new urban houses are associated with informal construction. Additionally, more than 100–150 million people in developed countries cannot afford the cost of energy and live under energy poverty conditions.

e. Tremendous urbanization in recent years, especially in the developing countries, challenges the capacity of the building and construction sector to satisfy the additional needs and requirements in housing, buildings and general infrastructure. According to the United Nations (2009), the urban population will exceed 6.3 billion of people by 2050. This is equivalent to an increase of close to 84% compared to 2009 levels. Forecasts predict that by 2020 there will be more than 527 cities where the population will exceed 1 million people.

Addressing the above challenges is a major issue for the building sector. A rich dialog is already taking place to identify the capacity of our societies to address these problems, while policy makers and civil society investigate which policies are the most appropriate to face the upcoming crisis. The design and implementation of policies, and of a concrete road map to address the challenges, requires a full and comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the characteristics and details of the problem. Under such conditions, it is possible to define specific qualitative and quantitative targets. Objectives and targets must be adapted to the needs and requirements of the local communities and should consider the specific characteristics of the problems in each area and community. Several factors control the capacity of the decision makers and in general of the societies to determine and implement adequate policies. Among other factors, the strength of the problem, the local economic conditions, the technological knowledge and competence, the development prospects, the existing business models and the availability of technological tools are the most important.

A book claiming to offer a roadmap for addressing all the challenges identified in the world is almost impossible and could be quite superficial. The present book concentrates on three major challenges and issues, focusing primarily on developed countries:

a. The political economic and technical context, the causes and the reasons defining and determining the strength and magnitude and the characteristics of the energy consumption in the building sector.

b. The specific impact of local and global climate change on the built environment, and vice versa.

c. The technological and social issues, characteristics and aspects of energy poverty.

These three problems seem to be among the most important for developed societies. They are highly interrelated, with strong synergies between them. The book aims to analyze the actual characteristics of the three problems, explore their multiple and complex synergies and trade offs, and address three fundamental questions regarding potential future developments (Santamouris, 2016):

a. What should the quantitative and qualitative future targets for each of the three problems in concern be?

b. What will be the major technological, macroeconomic and social forces and trends defining the progress and developments in the immediate future that will impact the economy and the sustainable advancement of societies? How can these mechanisms change the current state of affairs, defining a more proactive than a reactive agenda, and have a positive impact on the problem of energy consumption in buildings, local and global climate change, and energy poverty in the developed world?

c. How do we transform problems in opportunities? How can we increase the added value of technological, economic and social interventions to generate wealth and offer employment opportunities?

Analyzing the Three Main Problems of the Built Environment: Energy Consumption and Environmental Quality, Energy Poverty and Urban Vulnerability, and Local Climate Change

Energy Consumption in the Built Environment: Challenges and Opportunities

The amount of energy consumed in the built environment is extremely high. Forecasts of future energy demand show that it may soon increase considerably. The main drivers that define the evolution of energy consumption in the building sector are related to economic, technological, climatic, demographic and social issues. In particular:

– The expected tremendous increase of the planet’s population, is believed to have a very important impact on future energy consumption, as 3–4 billion new citizens will be added to the global population.

– The expected increase in the ambient temperature caused by global and local climate change affects energy consumption in the built environment, increases energy demand for cooling and probably decreases energy requirements for heating purposes.

– The foreseen increase in global GDP and a corresponding increase in household income will result in a substantial rise in the surface area of dwellings and commercial buildings. In parallel, higher family income makes the use of air conditioning and other electrical equipment more affordable.

– Technological developments increase the energy efficiency of the equipment used in the built environment, while helping to considerably decreasing the energy consumption of buildings. Zero energy buildings and almost zero energy settlements are designed and built in most developed counties (Fig. 1.1). However, many questions remain regarding the higher cost of zero energy buildings and their impact of low income populations. Although the technological developments look promising, it is widely accepted that the expected technological improvements cannot compensate for the effects of the previously mentioned drivers.

– There is a big question mark about the future price of energy. Most analysts predict a significant increase in future cost, mainly due to considerable new investments in electricity generation and the need to decarbonize the energy system. Higher energy prices may reduce consumption, but will aggravate the problem of energy poverty.

– Very intensive energy regulations aiming to decrease and optimize the use of energy consumption in the built environment have been adopted and implemented. New energy regulations, in combination with the application of advanced energy conservation technologies, have considerably decreased energy consumption for heating and lighting purposes.

Figure 1.1 The almost zero energy building NTL of the Cyprus Institute in Cyprus. Source: Papanikolas et al. (2015).

Although the population increase may be negligible in developed countries, all other drivers determining future energy consumption will continue to regulate future energy consumption in the built environment. In particular, due to climate change and increased income, energy consumption for cooling purposes is expected to increase tremendously. The major challenge of the future energy policy in the developed world seems to be how to cover future cooling needs in the built environment using sustainable and green technologies and at a reasonable cost.

In the so-called developing world, the energy agenda seems to be completely different than in the developed countries. Overpopulation, urbanization and the need to improve living standards and supply most of the population with electricity skyrockets energy consumption and the need for additional electricity power plants. Soon energy consumption in just one single city of India, Mumbai, may be almost equal to the whole cooling consumption of the United States.

Such a huge energy increase has very important economic and environmental consequences as it increases the energy-related financial burden of the countries, requires tremendous investments to install additional energy infrastructures, and increases the emission of greenhouse gases and other harmful pollutants. The development of appropriate technologies based on local resources seems to be the main challenges for the developing world, especially the use of renewable energy technologies, the introduction of energy conservation measures and systems, the increased availability of energy sources for each one, the increase of energy equity, and the rationalization or even minimization of the cost of energy.

It is evident that energy in the built environment faces extremely serious future challenges, both in developed and developing countries. The main issue in question is how the challenges may be translated into opportunities that will generate wealth, create new employment, support social equity and boost the quality of life of the population.

Climate Change in the Urban Built Environment: Our New Big Problem

Urban overheating is a serious problem for the whole world. Although the UHI phenomenon has been known about for more than 100 years, rapid urbanization, combined with a continuous increase in the production and released of anthropogenic heat in cities, intensifies the magnitude of the phenomenon and aggravates the impact on energy, environment, comfort and health.

Scientific knowledge on the strength and the characteristics of urban overheating is continuously increasing. Experimental data are available for more than 400 cities worldwide, while new monitoring techniques based on the use of advanced measuring equipment have been developed and employed (Santamouris, 2015). In parallel, the impact of urban overheating on energy, health and environmental quality has been assessed in detail in many cities and countries (Baccini et al., 2008; Santamouris, 2014; Santamouris et al., 2015; Santamouris and Kolokotsa, 2015). All studies shown that the energy impact of urban overheating is quite high and may exceed 68 kWh per person and degree of temperature increase. In parallel, the average additional penalty on electricity power has been calculated as being close to 20 W per person and degree of temperature increase. Finally, all studies associating heat- related mortality with ambient temperature show that there is a threshold temperature over which the level of heat related mortality increases considerably. Fig. 1.2 summarizes the results of the above studies.

Figure 1.2 Impact of local climate change and urban overheating.

To counterbalance the impact of local climate change and urban overheating, mitigation technologies have been developed and implemented in several cities. The proposed mitigation technologies aim to decrease the strength of heat sources in the cities, such as solar radiation, and increase the potential of heat sinks, for example by using evaporative technologies. Technologies may be classified in the following technological groups:

1. Technologies aiming to decrease the surface temperature of the city. This is mainly achieved through the reduction of the amount of solar radiation absorbed and the increase of emission losses from the materials.

2. Greenery technologies aiming to increase evapotranspiration from trees and other greenery in the city.

3. Evaporative technologies aiming to decrease the ambient temperature through the rise of the latent losses at the city level.

4. Solar control technologies aiming to decrease the intensity of solar radiation at the earth’s surface.

5. Radiative cooling technologies aiming to cool materials by increasing the radiative losses through the atmospheric window.

6. Ground cooling techniques aiming to dissipate the excess urban heat into the ground.

All of the above technologies have been extensively implemented in many large scale mitigation projects around the world. The cooling potential of the various technologies and their combinations has been analyzed by Santamouris et al. (2017). The potential decrease of the peak ambient temperature per technology and combination is shown in Fig. 1.3.

Figure 1.3 Potential decrease of the peak ambient temperature per mitigation technology and combination. Source: Santamouris et al. (2017).

Although the reported results show that the ambient temperature in cities can decrease several degrees, the reduction of the average peak ambient temperature rarely exceeds 2.5–3.0°C.

As an example of the real potential of the various mitigation technologies to reduce the peak ambient temperature in cities, Table 1.1 estimates the potential of using several mitigation technologies for the city of Sydney. About twenty-one different mitigation scenarios are calculated.

Table 1.1

Source: Santamouris et al. (2018).

The distribution of the ambient temperature in the zone of the city under consideration before the application of the mitigation technologies is given in Fig. 1.4. As shown, the ambient temperature in the area is found to vary from 24–29°C. In parallel, Figs. 1.5 to 1.9 report the calculated distribution of the ambient temperature when the mitigation scenarios are implemented. The whole study shows that the implementation of the specific mitigation technologies can result in a decrease of the peak ambient temperature by up to 2.5°C.

Figure 1.4 Calculation of the ambient temperature distribution in the considered urban zone of Sydney. Source: Santamouris et al. (2018).

Figure 1.5 Temperature distribution at the ground level of scenarios involving the increase of the global albedo. (A) Scenario ID 2, (B) Scenario ID 3, (C) Scenario ID 4, (D) Scenario ID 5. Source: Santamouris et al. (2018).

Figure 1.6 Temperature distribution at the ground level of scenarios involving the increase of the albedo of streets. (A) Scenario ID 6, (B) Scenario ID 7, (C) Scenario ID 8, (D) Scenario ID 9. Source: Santamouris et al. (2018).

Figure 1.7 Temperature distribution at the ground level of scenarios involving the increase of the albedo of pavements. (A) Scenario ID 10, (B) Scenario ID 11, (C) Scenario ID 12, (D) Scenario ID 13. Source: Santamouris et al. (2018).

Figure 1.8 Temperature distribution at the ground level of scenarios involving the increase of the albedo of roofs. (A) Scenario ID 14, (B) Scenario ID 15, (C) Scenario ID 16, (D) Scenario ID 17. Source: Santamouris et al.