Zero-energy building
Terminology tends to vary between countries, agencies, cities, towns, and reports, so a general knowledge of this concept and its various uses is essential for a versatile understanding of clean energy and renewables.
[7] Typical code-compliant buildings consume 40% of the total fossil fuel energy in the US and European Union and are significant contributors of greenhouse gases.
[19] Despite sharing the name "zero net energy", there are several definitions of what the term means in practice, with a particular difference in usage between North America and Europe.
[4][5][6] Within this balancing procedure several aspects and explicit choices have to be determined:[27][28][29] The most cost-effective steps toward a reduction in a building's energy consumption usually occur during the design process.
Successful zero energy building designers typically combine time tested passive solar, or artificial/fake conditioning, principles that work with the on-site assets.
Sunlight and solar heat, prevailing breezes, and the cool of the earth below a building, can provide daylighting and stable indoor temperatures with minimum mechanical means.
ZEBs are normally optimized to use passive solar heat gain and shading, combined with thermal mass to stabilize diurnal temperature variations throughout the day, and in most climates are superinsulated.
On-site energy harvesting such as with roof top mounted solar panels eliminates these transmission losses entirely.
The production of goods under net zero fossil energy consumption requires locations of geothermal, microhydro, solar, and wind resources to sustain the concept.
[33] Zero-energy neighborhoods, such as the BedZED development in the United Kingdom, and those that are spreading rapidly in California and China, may use distributed generation schemes.
[citation needed] As a result of significant government subsidies for photovoltaic solar electric systems, wind turbines, etc., there are those who suggest that a ZEB is a conventional house with distributed renewable energy harvesting technologies.
[35] A few kilowatt-hours of photovoltaic panels (costing the equivalent of about US$2–3 dollars per annual kWh production) may only reduce external energy requirements by 15% to 30%.
[40] Utility companies are typically legally responsible for maintaining the electrical infrastructure that brings power to our cities, neighborhoods, and individual buildings.
Overcoming this barrier could require extensive upgrades to the electrical grid, however, as of 2010, this is not believed to be a major problem until renewable generation reaches much higher levels of penetration.
Collaborative government demonstration projects, such as the superinsulated Saskatchewan House, and the International Energy Agency's Task 13, have also played their part.
Capitalizing on the continuing developments in both photovoltaics and geothermal heat pump technologies, and in the advancing electric battery field, complete conversion to a carbon free energy solution is becoming easier.
There are many unforeseen design challenges and site conditions required to efficiently meet the renewable energy needs of a building and its occupants, as much of this technology is new.
[66] Included in the list of green building certifications, the BCA Green Mark rating system allows for the evaluation of buildings for their performance and impact on the environment[67] As a response to global warming and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, countries around the world have been gradually implementing different policies to tackle ZEB.
[75] With an estimated population of 1,439,323,776 people, China has become one of the world's leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions due to its ongoing rapid urbanization.
[71] In November 2015, China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) released a technical guide regarding passive and low energy green residential buildings.
[70] In 2020, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping released a statement in his address to the UN General Assembly declaring that China would be carbon neutral by 2060 pushing forward climate change reforms.
This concept makes the design and construction of PEH a sample model and standardized process for mass production by MAPSA.
[99] The exemplar project will become Ireland's first zero energy testbed offering a post-occupancy evaluation of actual building performance against design benchmarks.
[101] The Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is underway with the construction of Japan's first zero energy office building, set to be completed in October, 2020 (as of September 2020).
[104] The developing company Sekisui House introduced their first net zero home in 2013, and is now planning Japan's first zero energy condominium in Nagoya City, it is a three-story building with 12 units.
The main objective of the FME-centres is to contribute to the development of good technologies for environmentally friendly energy and to raise the level of Norwegian expertise in this area.
[117][118] In January 2019 the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government simply defined 'Zero Energy' as 'just meets current building standards' neatly solving this problem.
[121] The U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007[122] created 2008 through 2012 funding for a new solar air conditioning research and development program, which should soon demonstrate multiple new technology innovations and mass production economies of scale.
[125] The plan included funding to build the top ten entries at $250,000 each, a $10 million first prize, and then a total of 100 such homes to be built and sold to the public.
The US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an international competition that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.
