Abstract
Increasing the energy efficiency of residential and non-residential buildings is a crucial point towards the development of the sustainable cities of the future. To reach such a goal, the commonly employed intervention measures (for instance, on facades and glass) are not sufficient and efforts in reaching a fully renewable energy generation are mandatory. In this context, this paper discusses the applicability of a system with solar and biomass as the main energy sources in different climates for heating, cooling, domestic hot water and electricity generation in office buildings. The energy system includes solar thermal collectors with thermoelectric generators, a biomass boiler, a reversible heat pump/organic Rankine cycle and an adsorption chiller. The results showed that the system can operate with a share of renewables higher than 70% for all energy needs, with up to 80% of the overall energy demand supplied only by solar and biomass sources even in the northern locations.
Highlights
Increasing the energy efficiency of residential and non-residential buildings is a crucial point towards the development of the sustainable cities of the future
The potential of the multi-generation system is evaluated in non-residential buildings using the office building typology as a reference where construction characteristics and the energy demands were collected from the project ENTRANZE [25] for the cities of Madrid, Berlin and Helsinki
Considering the entire building, according to the project iNSPIRE [30,31] most of the office buildings (85%) in Spain are built with reinforced concrete and masonry; other structures include glass combined with stainless steel or concrete
Summary
Increasing the energy efficiency of residential and non-residential buildings is a crucial point towards the development of the sustainable cities of the future To reach such a goal, the commonly employed intervention measures (for instance, on facades and glass) are not sufficient and efforts in reaching a fully renewable energy generation are mandatory. Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and their self-consumption brings other benefits to the overall energy system such as the reduction of the electricity demand in peak hours and a better management of the grid as reported by Jradi et al [6] To this aim, several solutions have been proposed that include photovoltaic (PV) systems, thermo-photovoltaic (PV-T) for electricity and thermal generation and co-generation and tri-generation using gas, solar or biomass as the main driver, fuel cells and Stirling engines, investigated for instance by Calise et al and Seddiki and Bennadji [7,8]. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
