News - NZEB

The ‘Zero Carbon Buildings for All Initiative’ launched at the UN-Climate Action Summit

Currently, less than 1% of the buildings in the world are net-zero in terms of carbon. Considering that the building sector consumes a substantial amount of energy, the world needs to rapidly move towards a decarbonized building sector & tackle climate change. At the recently held UN-Climate Action Summit at New York, USA, leaders from the national and local level launched the ‘Zero Carbon Buildings for All Initiative.’ This proposal aims to unite officials from all sectors to develop & implement policies to to accelerate decarbonization of new buildings by 2030 and existing building by 2050. Previously, zero carbon buildings were considered a target only for wealthy countries. But the current initiative is looking to implement it in all the countries irrespective of their development status.

Pittsburgh launches its own International Center of Excellence on High Performance Buildings

After New York City’s Building Energy Exchange (Be-ex), Pittsburgh becomes the second city in the world to launch the Greater Pittusburgh International Center of Excellence on High Performance Buildings after the agreement was signed between United Nations Economic Council on Europe (UNECE) and the Green Building Alliance (GBA). Pittsburgh is also home to world’s largest ‘2030 District.’ The Center will follow the UNECE’s Framework Guidelines for Energy Efficiency Standards in Buildings. It will be a collaboration between regional partners, including the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Under the framework, the Center will conduct training programs for design professionals, host discussions, and advocate for local and state policy changes regarding building codes and energy regulations.

Through these initiatives, Pittsburgh is becoming one of the finest examples of a green city driving advance sustainable solutions in its built environment!

World’s First Low Carbon Greenhouses to come up in UK.

Agriculture is one of the top five carbon intensive sectors! However, the decarbonization of this sector is progressing at an alarmingly slow rate. Taking a huge stride in this direction, Greencoat Capital (an asset managing company dedicated to the resource efficiency and renewable energy sectors), UK is investing 120 million to construct UK’s largest greenhouses near Norwich and Bury St. Edmunds.

The greenhouses in UK are among the largest ones constructed, each covering more than 13 hectares.Greenhouses are designed to capture and store solar radiation, thereby increasing air temperature and accelerating plant growth. In Europe, solar radiation alone cannot provide sufficient energy to reach optimal growing temperatures throughout the day. To overcome this, greenhouses generally utilize gas-fired boilers to increase the temperature.

The proposed advanced greenhouses will be warmed via heat pumps through residual heat from nearby water recycling centres. Further, electricity for the heat pumps will be provided by a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant, with waste heat from the CHP providing further warmth for the greenhouses.

The St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York goes Green!

Equipped with Manhattan’s largest geothermal plant, the renovated St. Patrick’s cathedral is offering valuable lessons for making historic buildings resilient & effective. Costing 177 million dollars, the cathedral which is perceived as one of the first successful examples of religious architecture in the “new” world, has undergone major renovation efforts. The design innovations include laying of a closed-loop geothermal plant which penetrates 2,200ft into the bedrock to draw water for heating & cooling purposes, installation of high performance glazing, low flow plumbing & installation of LED bulbs. Moreover, extensive efforts have been diverted into enhancing the biodiversity of the site in terms of both flora as well as fauna. Covering around 40% of the garden area, tree canopies offer seasonal blooms, fruit production & ecological restoration which in turn attract a variety of birds & insects.

Challenging traditional religious buildings, St. Patrick’s cathedral serves as an outstanding example in creating a sustainable, cost-friendly place of worship which will inspire the present as well as the future generations.

Burlington Energy Department (BED) releases Net-Zero Energy Roadmap

The Burlington Energy Department (BED) released the City’s Net Zero Energy Roadmap which highlights the strategies required to accomplish its goal to become a Net Zero Energy city by 2030, and identifies key pathways to get there. The goal is to make Burlington a Net Zero Energy city across electric, thermal, and ground transportation sectors by managing demand, realizing efficiency gains, and expanding local renewable generation, while increasing system resilience. To understand what it would take to achieve this, BED issued a request for proposals from firms to analyze a business as usual scenario, model pathways that achieved more progress, and recommend strategies to achieve Net Zero Energy. The key strategies highlighted in the roadmap are: Efficient Electric Buildings including the implementation of district energy systems, Adoption of electric vehicles & alternative transportation. The roadmap also outlines programs, incentives, new metrics & engagements.

77 Countries, 100+ Cities Commit to Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050 at Climate Summit

The Climate Action Summit held between 21st – 23rd September, 2019 at New York, USA brought together more than 65 Heads of State and Government as well as leaders of sub-national governments and the private sector. Various countries as well as the private sector announced steps and initiatives to address climate change, including achieving net zero global emissions by 2050. In the opening remark, UN – Secretary General António Guterres highlighted the need to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030. Additionally, he also called for increased acceleration of climate finance by implementing the commitment by developed countries to mobilize USD 100 billion annually for developing countries by 2020. The summit concluded with 77 countries, 10 regions and over 100 cities committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

EXISTING BUILDINGS TO NEARLY ZERO ENERGY BUILDINGS (nZEB) – a Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) initiative

EDS has been appointed to carry out the feasibility study for 100 existing buildings providing a roadmap to achieve the nZEB goal. The selection criteria for buildings is as under:

1. Minimum built up area: 5000 sq. mts.
2. Minimum connected load >100kW or contract demand > 120 kVA or as notified by State/UT
3. Eligible building typologies: Educational institutions, Healthcare, Shopping complex, Hospitality, Airports & Railway/Metro stations.

The feasibility study by EDS will broadly comprise of the following activities:
1. Assessment of existing building energy consumption
2. Energy mapping of building energy systems
3. Identifying energy savings potential
4. Cost benefit analysis

Following the study, EDS will share a complete analysis report listing down Energy Conservation Measures (ECM’s) with the building owners for further action. The building owners/client shall not be bound to carry out implementation of ECM’s suggested, before all practical and financial implications are considered.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency is an agency of the Government of India, under the Ministry of Power created in March 2002 under the provisions of the nation’s 2001 Energy Conservation Act. As per BEE, nZEB is defined as a building whose Energy Performance Index (EPI) is less than 15 kwh/m2/year.

To register your expression of interest please visit the link

Giant Tech Companies Announce Plans to Fight Climate Change

In a bid to combat climate change and accelerate efforts towards a sustainable low carbon future, Tech giants Google and Amazon have announced ambitious plans ahead of the climate strikes scheduled on 20th September, 2019.

Google has made the biggest corporate purchase of renewable energy in history by committing to 18 new energy portfolios which will add 1600MW of solar & wind energy. Goolge CEO, Sundar Pichai opines that bringing incremental renewable energy to the grids is a critical component of pursuing 24×7 carbon-free energy for all of operations. The company has also pledged to use recycled materials in all of its ‘Made by Google Products’ by 2022.

The ‘Climate Pledge’ taken by Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos sets out to reach the Paris climate agreement’s emissions-cutting targets ten years early, setting the company up to be carbon-neutral by 2040. Additionally, the company targets to utilize 80 percent renewable energy by 2024 and to run on renewables alone by 2030.

‘Achieving Zero’ : A Framework and Toolkit for Cities

Currently, about 50% of the world’s population is living in cities. It is expected that by 2060, the urban world population is going to increase by about 2.8 billion people. Further, cities are projected to add about 1.5 million people every week. This rampant growth demands economic, social, and environmental innovation. Today, cities are responsible for 70% of the carbon emissions. Hence, it becomes increasingly necessary for governments to create roadmaps & creative policies for the built environment. The Achieving Zero framework provides innovative solutions based on research data from 11 U.S cities. The framework delineates the actions required to be taken by new & existing buildings and measures to be taken to reduce embodied carbon.

Photo Credits: https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2019/08/01/bipv-in-futuristic-las-vegas-development-pvmb-08-01-19/ — Bluetech Park, Las Vegas, USA

Scheduled to be launched by the end of the year, Bluetech Park will house net-zero buildings featuring automated multifunctional designs, an array of renewable energy technologies, robotics & artificial intelligence, Internet of things(IoT) and more. The cutting-edge project will also feature ‘supertrees’ which will reduce imported water demand by 95% while improving the biodiversity of the region. In addition to the luxury housing, offices, hotels and entertainment venues—the mini-city will also include affordable ‘workforce housing” for nurses, firemen, police officers etc.

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NZEB Study Tour to Australia

An international Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) study tour to Australia is being conducted under USAID’s MAITREE (Market Integration & Transformation for Energy Efficiency) program. The goal of the study tour is to create awareness about the application of building energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, learn about best practices in building energy management and policies for net zero and high performance buildings.

A Net-Zero Energy Building (NZEB) can be described as ‘a highly energy efficient, grid-connected building that generates at least as much energy through onsite renewable sources as it uses, accounted for annually’. In other words, in a NZEB the difference between the annual energy consumption and the annual energy generation through systems utilizing renewable resources like solar, biomass, wind, geo-thermal, and urban waste, and other sources is equal to (or less than) zero.

The one week tour has curated visits to Net Zero and high performance buildings in Sydney and Adelaide. This tour will also have interactive sessions with leading experts in policy, design and technology. The tour will take place in the last week of November, 2019. A maximum of 8-10 participants will be selected for the study tour based on the application submitted via this expression of interest. Funding support will be available for the tour.

ELIGIBILITY: The study tour is only open to developers, practising architects and professionals who are in the field of designing high performance and energy efficient buildings or who are able to influence the design of buildings.

Last date for filling out the form is 20th August, 2019. Selected participants will be contacted before 31st August, 2019. Should you have any questions, please write to us at: nzeb@edsglobal.com with NZEB Study tour in the subject line.

Apply here

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