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Germany to ramp up the decarbonisation of Buildings Heating from Jan 1st 2024. How?

July 11, 2023 by Sebastian Ligewie

Decarbonising heating is a major challenge for any country. Germany’s Building Energy Act (GEG) means that from 2024 every newly installed heating system, in new or existing buildings, must operate with a minimum of 65% renewable energy. Concerns over the costs to customers (installing new and expensive systems, or paying a penalty for fossil heating) has led to intense debates, hence the new law includes a range of subsidies, bonuses, discounted … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, costs, decarbonisation, district, exemptions, gas, GEG, Germany, heating, municipal, oil, renewables, residential, subsidies

Building Materials “Embodied Carbon”: reaching net-zero with low-carbon cement, timber, modular design and more

July 5, 2023 by Madeline Weir, Audrey Rempher and Rebecca Esau

In this explainer Madeline Weir, Audrey Rempher and Rebecca Esau at RMI first describe how embodied carbon is calculated. They then summarise the strategies being employed to reduce it, including using low-carbon, carbon-neutral, or even carbon-storing materials. New cement formulations are being developed with over 60% less CO2 emissions than the regular kind. Low-carbon mass timber is an alternative building material under development. On the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, cement, design, EmbodiedCarbon, emissions, insulation, materials, modular, prefabricated, steel, USIRA

Buildings Efficiency: cars have an “eco mode” button. Why not our homes?

June 20, 2023 by Maximilian Auffhammer

Households need the right tools to be able to take control of their real-time energy consumption, says Maximilian Auffhammer at the Energy Institute at Haas. Smart meters are just too crude. They don’t tell you how much energy individual devices are using – fridges, ovens, heaters, EV chargers, TVs, lightbulbs, toasters, etc. You have to work it out yourself by switching devices on and off and seeing the difference. Auffhammer argues if you price … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy, Energy efficiency Tagged With: behaviour, consumption, efficiency, electricity, heating, households, HVAC, SmartMeters

Adding ordinary baking soda to concrete production can cut 15% of its CO2 emissions

April 12, 2023 by David Chandler

Concrete production makes up 8% of global CO2 emissions. Half comes from the fossil energy used to make it (which, hopefully, can transition to clean power), and the other half comes from the CO2 that escapes during the chemical transformation. David Chandler at MIT describes research there that shows how simply adding sodium bicarbonate (yes, the baking soda you put in your cookies) during the early stages of production can remove, by … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy, Industry Tagged With: bakingsoda, CO2, concrete, emissions, industry, mineralisation, NaHCO₃, sodiumbicarbonate

Buildings “Energy Performance Certificates”: piloting new tools to ramp up renovations

March 20, 2023 by Patricia Contreras Tejada

In Europe, any building put up for sale or rent must have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). But as climate ambitions rise, so too must the those of the EPC. That's the purpose of the TIMEPAC consortium, funded by the EU’s Horizon programme, is working to extend its effectiveness and range of tools, explains Patricia Contreras Tejada writing for the European Science Communication Institute (ESCI). She quotes experts who point out that a low … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: Austria, BPIE, buildings, consumption, Croatia, Cyprus, decarbonisation, EPC, EU, Europe, heating, Horizon2020, HVAC, Italy, materials, renovations, Slovenia, spain, TIMEPAC

Solar PV windows on highly glazed skyscrapers can cut energy by 40%+

November 30, 2022 by Wayne Hicks

Around a third of the world’s energy consumption and CO2 emissions come from buildings. Highly glazed skyscrapers and buildings may look beautiful and let in plenty of light, but waste a lot of energy due to the extra cooling needed in summer and heating in winter. Modern skyscrapers can have window-to-wall ratios of 70%+. But modern thermally efficient photovoltaic windows not only provide insulation but turn the absorbed light into power. Wayne … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, efficiency, emissions, generation, innovation, insulation, PV, rooftop, skyscrapers, windows

New U.S. ‘Buy Clean’ plan earmarks billions for low-carbon cement, steel and other building materials

September 27, 2022 by Victor Olgyay, Anish Tilak and Connor Usry

New guidance from the U.S. federal government, combined with historic Inflation Reduction Act investments, could turbocharge markets for low-carbon cement, steel, and other building materials. Victor Olgyay, Anish Tilak and Connor Usry at Rocky Mountain Institute explain how the new “Buy Clean” recommendations will mean the procurement of green building materials for federal building and transportation projects. That will lead to a boost in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: asphalt, buildings, cement, decarbonisation, emissions, funding, ghg, glass, pollution, steel, US

Buildings Renovation: city-wide comprehensive data management tools to transform each building

September 21, 2022 by Molly Rettig

In the U.S. the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have created a free-to-use (and develop) online data management tool – called SEED - that allows whole cities to collect details on thousands of buildings and use them to assess energy wastage at the single building level. Molly Rettig at NREL explains that hundreds of data points can be collected for each building. The tools, along with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, Cities, data, Energy, renovation, retrofit, SanFrancisco, US, Washington

EU Heat Pumps: warnings against “one size fits all” policies

May 31, 2022 by Helen Farrell

The EU is aiming for the installation of 50 million heat pumps by 2030, equating to annual growth of 16%, reaching one third of the total 150 million boiler installations in the bloc. Helen Farrell reviews these ambitious targets and the policies that are driving them, and turns to a report by RAP to identify the weaknesses in the plan and how it can be improved. The main danger is a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Different countries have … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy, HVAC Tagged With: buildings, electrification, EU, Germany, heating, HeatPumps, HVAC, newbuilds, retrofits, UK

46% of Buildings “Embodied Carbon” can be slashed at little to no cost

April 20, 2022 by John Matson and Rebecca Esau

Buildings and their construction account for around 40% of all carbon emissions today. Half those emissions come from the construction alone, so buildings successfully powered by clean energy won’t come close to fixing the whole problem. John Matson and Rebecca Esau at RMI describe how industry leaders are creating the tools to measure and gather data on the “embodied carbon” in building materials (concrete, rebar, glazing, insulation, other … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: Arup, buildings, carbon, construction, embodied, Skanska, ThorntonTomasetti, transparency

Buildings Renovation: if Europe had started a decade ago it wouldn’t have a Russian oil & gas problem

April 8, 2022 by Andreas RĂŒdinger

It’s a message we are starting to see a lot. If ambitious climate policies struggling to be implemented today had been launched a decade ago, Europe wouldn’t have a Russian oil and gas problem. Andreas RĂŒdinger at IDDRI looks at buildings renovations in France. Two missed targets, proposed in 2008, are a 38% reduction in energy consumption in existing buildings by 2020, and 400,000 “major” renovations annually. If they had been met, natural gas … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: boilers, buildings, efficiency, electricity, EU, Europe, France, gas, insulation, oil, renovation, Russia, Ukraine

Why sustainable Buildings are critical for a resilient, healthier society

March 25, 2022 by Velux

Europe and its Member States are committing large sums to buildings renovations. The policy emphasis has been on insulation, energy savings and emissions reduction. The latest Healthy Homes Barometer 2022 by Velux draws attention to the health benefits of renovations that target damp, lack of daylight, excess noise or cold, and other indoor climate hazards. To get an idea of the scale of the problem, 34 million Europeans are unable to keep their … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, damp, daylight, EU, health, healthcare, heating, offices, productivity, renovation, Velux, WHO

Factory-built energy-efficient modular affordable Housing for reducing lifecycle emissions

March 16, 2022 by Jeffrey Wolf

Building construction and operation accounts for 37% of global energy-related carbon emissions, according to the UNEP. And every part of the world needs new housing. The U.S. has a 3.8-million-unit housing shortage. Jeffrey Wolf, writing for NREL, describes how modular factory-made affordable net-zero housing is being developed that costs no more than existing construction methods. To get the greatest decarbonisation impact most cost-effectively, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, efficiency, housing, innovation, materials, modular, recycling

Smart households in a high Renewables world: flexible, efficient, cheaper

March 10, 2022 by Marco Reiser and Karoline Steinbacher

Smart controls can enable household heating and EVs to interact flexibly with increasingly decentralised electricity generation. As renewables continue to be added to the energy mix, it will increase efficiency, reduce load, and save money. Marco Reiser and Karoline Steinbacher at Guidehouse summarise the challenges and opportunities, before looking at the SINTEG pilot in Germany. The main hurdles are technological (standardisation, interfaces, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: costs, DistrictHeating, efficiency, electricity, EVs, flexibility, Germany, heating, HeatPumps, HVAC, renewables, rooftopsolar, SINTEG, smart, standards

If Buildings Renovation fails, the EU ETS pricing mechanism must change

March 3, 2022 by Sebastian Osorio, Michael Pahle and Oliver Ruhnau

If the EU “Renovation Wave” for buildings fails, the massive ramp up of clean electrification required to compensate will come into direct conflict with EU ETS pricing formulas, say Sebastian Osorio and Michael Pahle at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Oliver Ruhnau at the Hertie School in Berlin. If the cap in the original ETS is too tight relative to the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) targets, its carbon prices may rise … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: boilers, BRTETS, buildings, CarbonPricing, decentralised, district, electrification, ESR, EUETS, heating, renovation

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      Concrete supercapacitor: works like a battery, much cheaper, easy to make

      Agrivoltaics: GWs of solar power from farmland using strategically placed panels (and raising crop yields)

      Industry’s EU ETS reforms and CBAM: how firms can turn the rising cost of carbon into competitive advantage

      Concawe Symposium tackles climate and pollution as RED commits fuel companies to 29% renewable content from 2030

      Affordable €25k EVs by 2025: Europe’s carmakers can do it. Instead they’re making more profitable SUVs

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