Impact of renewable energy technologies on the embodied and operational GHG emissions of a nearly zero energy building
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Jari Shemeikka; Jaakko Ketomäki; Nusrat Jung; Tarja Häkkinen; Sirje Vares
- Source
- Vares, S, Häkkinen, T, Ketomäki, J, Shemeikka, J & Jung, N 2019, ' Impact of renewable energy technologies on the embodied and operational GHG emissions of a nearly zero energy building ', Journal of Building Engineering, vol. 22, pp. 439-450 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2018.12.017
- Subject
- Renewable energy technologies
Net zero energy building
0211 other engineering and technologies
02 engineering and technology
7. Clean energy
Energy storage
021105 building & construction
11. Sustainability
Architecture
Environmental impact assessment
SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
021108 energy
Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
Embodied greenhouse gases
Civil and Structural Engineering
ta212
ta211
ta214
Zero-energy building
business.industry
Nearly zero energy building
Building and Construction
Environmental economics
SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
Renewable energy
Greenhouse gases
Impact
13. Climate action
Mechanics of Materials
Greenhouse gas
Environmental science
Electricity
business
Embodied energy
Thermal energy
- Language
- ISSN
- 2352-7102
The renewable energy solutions are being actively applied to achieve nearly and net zero energy buildings, however very few studies have reported the environmental impact of applied renewable energy sources (RES) on a net zero energy building from the perspective of both embodied and operational greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). As the energy performance of buildings improves, the significance of embodied energy and embodied greenhouse gases increases when compared to the operational impacts. These trends can become more important when the technology for net zero energy and off-grid buildings is being advanced especially when necessitating use of energy storage (batteries). The aim of this study is to advance new knowledge on the impact of local renewable energy solutions on the GHGs of nearly zero energy buildings by considering both operational and embodied impacts. This study presents the case study of a net zero residential building and evaluates three main cases of annual net zero electricity ( Case 1 ), off-grid electricity ( Case 2 ) and 100% solar thermal heat ( Case 3 ) and in total presenting six variations of building integrated RES technologies. The results indicate that the embodied GHG impacts are responsible for two thirds of GHG impacts which is opposite when compared to an nearly zero energy building that is connected to the grid and district heat network (BAU case). When RES technologies are integrated with the building and electricity is produced from renewable sources the ‘Annually net zero electricity’ case produces almost 40% less GHG emissions when compared to the ‘BAU’ case. For the ‘off grid electricity’ case using Li-ion batteries for seasonal energy storage, resulted in the highest embodied GHG emissions due to immature technology.