Energy efficiency in buildings: the road to a real market transformation

Constant Van Aerschot, Lafarge, R&D, France
Dominique Glachant, EDF, Energy Efficiency Program, France

Keywords

market transformation, policy, technology, finance, sub-sector, simulation (computer), model

Abstract

This paper reports the research carried out by the Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) project of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development between 2006 and 2009. In particular it reports the creation of a computer simulation model of adoption rates for energy-efficiency investments and the outputs of the model in two building classes - residential and commercial - in specific geographies.

The EEB research also includes a perception survey among building professionals and opinion formers. It carried out wide-ranging interactions with stakeholders in the six regions covered by the project – Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan and the USA. The purpose of the project is to identify how to achieve substantial progress towards its vision of a world in which buildings consume zero net energy and produce less CO2. It concentrates on energy used in buildings rather than energy generation for the grid.

The EEB simulation model is designed to simulate decisions made by building owners (or others responsible for making the decisions) faced with a choice of investment in a range of design and construction options. It simulates decisions based on micro-economic criteria and calculates the resulting energy consumption and CO2 emissions (both at the building and sub-sector levels). Rather than identifying the measures required to achieve a given energy consumption, it sets out to understand the conditions under which certain design and technology selections will be made.

EEB concentrated on four major sub-sectors: single-family and multi-family housing, offices and retail buildings. For each sub-sector simulations were run for a specific location, taking account of the actual building, energy and climate characteristics. Several “reference cases” were created to represent the range of building and energy combinations in that market.

Existing building energy data were used to calculate the energy performance of each of 609 potential construction packages – in the case of French single family homes - available to decision-makers, covering nature and performance of the equipment and of the envelope, as well as energy for each use within the house. Simulations modelled the impacts of alternative policy, financial and technical choices. Outputs show the energy use and CO2 emissions, the costs per building, the total policy cost of each package and the resulting business opportunity.

This paper reports results for two cases – single-family homes in France and multi-family homes in Beijing. The paper presents conclusions for achieving the project vision based on these and other simulations and qualitative analysis carried out by the project.