One of the key challenges to greater renewable electricity supplies is the temporal mismatch between non-dispatchable renewable sources and peaks in electricity demand. In addition, increased electrification coupled with the de-carbonisation of electricity generation is likely to increase the scale of demand peaks. This could force investment in carbon-intensive peaker generation or capital intensive

This paper is an attempt to identify a methodology for converting conventional energy consumption buildings to net-zero energy buildings (NZEB). The first step was rather different from the usual energy audit, which is to analyze a facility’s energy consumptions from both macro- and micro-scales. To implement such an approach, a governmental office building (Metro) in Portland, OR, was chosen as a

Improved building energy efficiency has been shown to contribute substantially to global greenhouse gas abatement objectives. Realisation of these benefits depends on the deployment of appropriate policy instruments. Building energy codes have the potential to deliver economic, environmental, societal and other strategic benefits. Australia’s high per capita greenhouse emissions and rates of building

The building sector contributes significantly to global energy consumption and CO2 emissions. It is urgent to reduce them through the retrofit of the current building stock and improvements in new building designs. The energy performance contracts that can deliver energy consumption savings must have an attractive rate of return to make financial sense for public and private sector buildings. These

The present study presents the bin weather data for four cities in the tropical region and its significance in the building energy analysis. The bin weather data for four cities in Malaysia, which are Bayan Lepas, Kuala Terengganu, Senai and Kuching, were generated. The bin weather data are in the range from 18 to 38 °C with 2 °C intervals and tabulated based on six 4-h shifts. Since there is a lack

Indoor swimming pools are high energy demand facilities. Current knowledge about their energy demand does not offer reliable information for a correct design of their thermal installations. A deeper knowledge about actual energy needs of these installations is then necessary to improve their energy efficiency. The objective of this work is to define and validate a new and specific model for the characterisation

Energy and environmental standards, like ISO 50001 and ISO 14001, have a significant influence on the sustainable performance of companies worldwide, while international sustainable building rating systems are often the chosen method to quantify and benchmark performance. This research aims to comprehensively evaluate and assess the performance of these standards in relation to both the LEED and BREEAM

At present, the contradiction between economic development and resource and environmental sustainability has become increasingly acute in China. Improving the quality of the ecological environment has become an important strategic goal for China’s national economic and social development. In this paper, we used the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 1986 to 2016 to measure the eco-efficiency

Space heating is the largest contributor to domestic energy consumption in the UK (UK). Gas central heating systems usually extend into every room of a property, but often sit in the background of the lives of those using them. Installation could offer a critical moment to optimise the operating efficiency of these systems, or consider alternative low carbon technologies. However, whether installation

Consumer adoption of fuel-efficient vehicles is a crucial step in improving energy efficiency of the light-duty vehicle sector. To promote adoption, policymakers have employed various demand- and supply-side policies including incentives, fuel economy standards, zero emission vehicle mandate, among others. This paper measures the changes in consumers’ purchase motivations and latent demand for hybrid

Energy performance of earthen wall office buildings in equatorial and tropical climates is investigated using a Simulink model and EnergyPlus software. The main aim of this numerical simulation study is to quantify the magnitude of the effect of adding a fibrous material or a stabiliser in the compressed earth block on the energy requirement or thermal comfort of a building taking into account different

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) collectively account for >13% of total global energy demand but have not receive sufficient scholarly attention because of the lack of an integrated framework to investigate the decision-making process of energy-efficiency measures (EEMs) and its crucial influencing drivers. To improve the energy-saving capabilities of SMEs, we developed a framework to integrate

Energy saving and emission reduction sometimes mean high cost, so companies do not have enough motivation to always support the related policy. By neglecting the economic cost and the imperfect substitution among input factors, widely used energy efficiency indicators such as “energy intensity” will sometimes lead to uneconomic results. Based on the theory of economic efficiency, “energy economic efficiency”

In the passive house system in cold regions today, the strategies focus on reducing energy loss by enhancing the thermal insulation performance of the building’s envelope. Yet, under the specific background, the application of passive house evaluation system lacks emphasis on the significance of solar heat gain. In this paper, two independent passive houses in cold areas in China were selected as research

The objective of this study is to estimate environmental energy efficiency (EEE)—defined as energy efficiency measures incorporating undesirable output in the production process—for high-income, middle-income and low-income economies as well as at the global level for the period 1993–2013. Under the broad framework of Data Envelopment Analysis, the traditional input-oriented measures of efficiency

The Passive House (PH) standard is a voluntary quality assurance standard focused upon maximising the health and wellbeing of occupants, whilst reducing space heating demand to a very low level. To meet the PH standard, well-defined criteria have to be met. However, given literature that suggests a ‘performance gap’ for energy savings, the question remains, how well do PH dwellings perform in situ

In this study, modifying a constant speed–driven hydraulic press brake machine into a variable speed drive system is examined in terms of electricity saving, CO2 reduction, and economic perspectives. The goal of the modification is to obtain increased efficiency by adding minimum hardware and software tools. For realizing this goal, a hydraulic test rig operated in a manner to represent the cycle of

Advances in automated energy metering system over the years have engendered transparency, self-control, efficiency, and equity in energy use especially among residential households globally. Despite this development, only few studies have shown the disaggregated effects of household attributes, dwelling characteristics, and metering systems on residential energy efficiency in the Global South. This

Worldwide, household electronic appliances represent a very dynamic market segment, accounting for a significant share of household energy demand. In Switzerland, household electronic appliances consumed 5.3 PJ (1.5 TWh) or 8.2% of the residential sector’s electricity demand. According to historical trends, improved energy efficiency has been counteracting increased size, enhanced functionality and

Although many studies have examined various types of single load demand prediction algorithms, it is yet a challenging decision to select the best predictor. Geographical characteristics are one of the most effective factors in load consumption patterns, the performance of the algorithms, and the accuracy of predictions. Therefore, developing a general framework in which meteorological characteristics

Decomposition analysis is a proven approach to highlight the trends in energy economics and to clarify the changing factors in energy consumption. In Turkey, industrial sector is one of the major drivers of economy, which accounts for 32% of the final energy consumption. This paper uses the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) to divide the total energy consumption growth of ten Turkish manufacturing

Demand-side response (DSR), the incentivised time-shifting of energy use by consumers away from peak times, is regarded as a potentially effective measure to balance electricity supply and demand. This will be even more important in the low-carbon energy system of the future, with a high share of non-dispatchable power, such as variable renewable energy and nuclear power. Most DSR programmes require

An efficient assessment of energy consumption, energy flow, and energy use efficiency in crop (maize) production is inevitable to accomplish the intensive demand for energy. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models based on energy input-output analysis are commonly used for the assessment of energy efficiency. However, standard implication of traditional (CCR) and extended (SBM) models has shortcomings

Coal as the main fuel for the heating industry exerts heavy burdens on China’s environment. Based on meta-frontier non-radial distance function, this paper estimates the total-factor unified integrated efficiency of the thermoelectric industry in 29 provinces and analyzes its dynamic changes using Malmquist index. Besides, the composition of the meta-frontier Malmquist unified integrated efficiency

Many studies show that the human energy-related behaviors have a significant impact on the return of Energy Efficiency Programs (EEPs). However, studies that aimed at increasing the energy savings from the EEPs are still limited. In this paper, a Genetic Agent-Based (GAB) framework has been proposed to enhance the return of a typical EEP by simulating social network and energy behavior attributes and

Modeling, simulation, and optimization methods are used in the present study to design grid-tied and off-grid solar PV systems for super-efficient electrical appliances for residential buildings. The principal objective of this study is to design a renewable energy system to serve the electric load of super-efficient appliances with high penetration of renewable resources and low greenhouse gas emissions

To improve access to electricity, decentralized, solar-based off-grid solutions like Solar Home Systems (SHSs) and rural micro-grids have recently seen a prolific growth. However, electrical load profiles, usually the first step in determining the electrical sizing of off-grid energy systems, are often non-existent or unreliable, especially when looking at the hitherto un(der)-electrified communities

Globally, around 1.1 billion people do not have access to electricity and 84% of the population who do not have modern energy access are living in rural and remote areas of developing countries. Since the loads are far from the grid and providing the connection by extending from the main grid requires a high investment associated with long and costly transmission and distribution lines, addressing

US households consume more electricity compared to other developed countries due to the fact that majority of the US household loads are inefficient. As a result, deployment of residential solar PV cost is increased given the high-power consumption and becomes less viable. Utilities are also increasingly applying surcharges to customers with solar PV installations because of direct impacts to the grid

There is a significant proportion of the world’s population living in remote rural areas that are geographically isolated and sparsely populated. This study is based on modeling, computer simulation, and optimization of a hybrid powered mini-grid for a remote area of Korr in the district of Marsabit, Northern Kenya. The solar photovoltaic and wind turbine are considered as the two renewable resources

The integration between distributed generations, storage, and load for islanded microgrids located in rural areas of developing countries offer serious challenges. The rural microgrid, catering the energy needs of rural communities, has no access to modern information and communication amenities like internet, communication architectures, and backup power. The lack of information and communication

Abstract Energy efficiency enables distributed off-grid renewable energy systems—from solar home systems to renewable micro-grids—to deliver energy services that otherwise might be economically or technically infeasible in resource-constrained settings. When super-efficient appliances are used, the total cost of solar home systems and their associated appliances can be reduced by as much as 50% (Phadke

Abstract Studies on the service sector in the European Union have identified an economic saving potential between 20 and 30% of current energy consumption, which remains mostly untapped. Although the topic of energy efficiency has been explored in depth before, there is little organized information about service activities and especially about small business, despite its importance in energy consumption

Abstract Retail stores are amongst the building typologies with the highest carbon (CI) and energy intensities (EI). However, previous studies have only explored best practice EI of food and non-food retailers, without identifying best practice CI threshold values. This paper presents a five-step analysis of CI and EI amongst the highest revenue retailers, benchmarking best and worst performing CI

Abstract This article discusses ineffective knowledge and information communication as an important barrier to improving energy efficiency in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and considers how to make functional communication an enabler of future SME energy-efficiency programmes. Energy audits – important tools when addressing energy efficiency in companies – are often performed by professionals

The original version of this paper was unfortunately published with an error in Fig. 3. The published figure includes excess layers, which negatively affects the readability of the figure. The correct figure is displayed below. The authors apologize for this error.

Abstract Existing buildings represent a significant energy saving potential in Europe, and retrofitting the building stock is essential to reach European targets. Retrofitting measures should reduce the energy consumption as well as improve the indoor climate while still being cost-effective. This can be challenging in European cold climates. This paper discusses energy performance requirements and

Abstract Industry is the largest consumer of energy and CO2 emission sector. Recognizing the heterogeneity of total factor CO2 emission performances between various industrial sub-sectors is crucial for governments, to enable the compilation of effective industrial CO2 emission reduction policies. To determine the CO2 emission characteristics throughout the industry sectors, Liaoning province was selected

Abstract This paper presents the technical, environmental, and economic evaluation of integrating various combinations of renewable energy sources-based systems in the expansion of a district heating and cooling network of a Technology Park near Barcelona in Spain. At present, a combined heat and power plant running on fossil fuels serves the heating, cooling, and electricity demand of the Park. However

Abstract Purchasing energy-saving appliances is a sensible and practical way to reduce carbon emissions from the residential sector in China. This study examines the relationship between pro-environment behavioral intention—undergirded by environmental attitude and concern as well as perceived psychological benefits—and the choice to purchase energy-saving appliances among Chinese households. Integrating