Sustainable energy shift in the building sector – feasible or infeasible?

Harald Gether and Kai Nielsen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Stein Rognlien, Statsbygg
Jorgen Gether, Gether AS

Keywords

Building industry, Energy efficiency, Renewable energy, Energy Systems, Building developers, Building users, Public authorities, Financial institutions, Dynamic models, Positive feedback, negative feedback

Abstract

Operation of the building mass accounts for 35-40% of stationary energy use in modern society, and the building sector presents perhaps the most challenging and rewarding opportunities for improved energy efficiency and increased use of new renewable energy sources.

The major focus for most property developers and owners, is the accumulated costs before the building starts to create income, and the competitiveness of a building in the market once it is operational. Accumulated costs have three main components: the actual construction costs, the lost generation of value (income) before the project is placed in the market, and finally financial costs. The second component means that planning, design and construction time becomes very important for the developer. This creates opportunities for society to make projects towards energy efficiency more tempting.

The paper discusses the deeper background for understanding change in the building sector, and considers a number of issues at interfaces between developers/owners, users and public authorities. Some of these issues act as barriers to change, while others promote change either directly or through destabilisation of situations of equilibrium and lock-in.

The analysis is based on an overall description of the building industry in terms of activities, to allow use of both overall optimisation, and also dynamic economic models to describe negative and positive feedback patterns and identify structures of stability that are inherently hard to change, and structures of instability that offer windows of opportunity where change of culture, methods and technology can be initiated and implemented.