Cost and Environmental Benefit Analysis of Solar—Panel Installation on Glass Surfaces to Reduce the Energy Consumption in High Rise Buildings

Abstract

Designing envelope configurations of the office building with the low construction cost and energy consumption is a discrete optimization problem. The envelope design is currently determined merely on architects’ experiences resulting in an inefficient expense or by building energy performance simulation, which is time-intensive and involves complex processes. However, to reduce energy consumption in buildings, previous studies only focused on optimizing the facade design or optimizing the installation area of solar panels on the roofs without combining the design solution with the installation of energy panels on the facade (vertical surface) of the building. This study presents a method to optimize the installation area of solar panels on the glass surfaces in buildings in order to reduce the amount of heat absorbed and create a large amount of renewable energy used in the building. It is based on the Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing methodologies to integrate both environmental and economic aspects.