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 âBuy Cleanâ recommendations will mean the procurement of green building materials for federal building and transportation projects. That will lead to a boost in … [Read more...]
Buildings Renovation: city-wide comprehensive data management tools to transform each building
In the U.S. the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have created a free-to-use and (and develop) online data management tool â 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...]
Grid Distribution Systems: access to usage data is uncovering the optimal design for future electrification
The more efficient a distribution grid is, the less likely other potential supply bottlenecks (from lithium for batteries to trained electricians) will slow the transition to greater and greater electrification. State-of-the-art modelling of future grids is already happening, but the robust modelling of the distribution system is conspicuously missing because good data are notoriously hard to find, says Meredith Fowlie at UC Berkeleyâs Energy … [Read more...]
Event summary: â45% RES by 2030: EUâs latest investment challenge to DSOsâ
Sara Stefanini provides a written summary of our panel discussion held on Thursday June 30th 2022. Itâs a full summary of the 90 minute discussion (including audience questions), but it begins conveniently with a summary of the highlights. Investment in and the modernisation of the electricity distribution grid is one the biggest challenges the EU has to overcome in the next decade. Itâs a âŹ400bn investment challenge by 2050 says Eurelectric, an … [Read more...]
Implementing Polandâs national Recovery and Resilience Plan
How should Poland implement its national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP)? Sonia Buchholtz at Forum Energii outlines some important answers. First, a deep analysis of the challenges and assessment of the solutions and reforms must start now. Buchholtz says though the directions set out in the RRP are correct, the details are out-of-date. Policy reforms and more ambitious targets are needed in all the main areas: energy efficiency and heating; … [Read more...]
4 ways to cut whole system electricity costs with flexible Demand Side Management
Right now, energy system costs are driven by generation capacity, infrastructure upgrades, network reinforcements, curtailment and constraint payments, and imbalance costs. Whatâs missing is the investment in a raft of demand side management assets that are ready to go but are not part of the market, therefore not rewarded, and therefore not being invested in. Laura Sandys at Energy Systems Catapult, writing for WEF, explains why flexibility must … [Read more...]
EU Heat Pumps: warnings against âone size fits allâ policies
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 âone size fits allâ approach. Different countries have … [Read more...]
Netherlands and China co-operate on Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage for heating and cooling
Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) accesses the stable temperature of groundwater to warm buildings in winter and cool them in summer. The solution uses much less power than conventional heating and cooling systems. As Daisy Chi at ECECP explains, ATES first took off in China in the 1960s but ran into problems with the required circulation of the groundwater. However, the technology has been developed and optimised in the Netherlands: of the … [Read more...]
Latest U.S. modelling shows Battery Storage can support an 80% Renewables grid by 2050
NRELâs latest Storage Futures Study concludes that battery storage should be able to support an 80% renewables grid mix in the U.S. by 2050. Madeline Geocaris at NREL explains how they modelled hundreds of future scenarios to accurately represent the value of diurnal (<12 hours) battery energy storage. The high-storage scenarios made different cost and performance assumptions for storage, wind, solar PV, and natural gas. 15 storage … [Read more...]
How a street can share a Ground Source Heat Pump
Ground and air source heat pumps are expected to play a major role in cutting the use of gas for heating. But one major problem with them is that they need a lot of space. For those living in dense housing itâs just not practical. District heat networks are the usual alternative, but the dense urban areas they serve need to be near a large source of waste heat like power stations or other industrial units. David Barns at the University of Leeds … [Read more...]
46% of Buildings âEmbodied Carbonâ can be slashed at little to no cost
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 wonât 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 âembodied carbonâ in building materials (concrete, rebar, glazing, insulation, other … [Read more...]
Buildings Renovation: if Europe had started a decade ago it wouldnât have a Russian oil & gas problem
Itâs 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 wouldnât have a Russian oil and gas problem. Andreas RĂźdinger 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 âmajorâ renovations annually. If they had been met, natural gas … [Read more...]
Why sustainable Buildings are critical for a resilient, healthier society
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...]
Factory-built energy-efficient modular affordable Housing for reducing lifecycle emissions
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...]
If Buildings Renovation fails, the EU ETS pricing mechanism must change
If the EU âRenovation Waveâ 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...]
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