Abstract
Energy efficiency is vital to improve energy security, environmental and social sustainability, and economic performance. Improved energy efficiency also mitigates climate change by lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Buildings are the single largest industrial consumer of energy and are therefore key to understanding and analyzing energy consumption patterns and the opportunities for saving energy at the district level in urban environments. This study focused on two representative boroughs in the major metropolitan area of Seoul, South Korea as a case study: Gandong-gu, a typical residential district, and Jung-gu, a typical commercial district. The sources of the energy supplied to the boroughs were determined and consumption patterns in different industry sectors in Seoul used to identify current patterns of energy consumption. The study analyzed the energy consumption patterns for five different building categories and four different sectors in the building using a bottom-up energy modeling approach. Electricity and gas consumption patterns were recorded for different building categories and monthly ambient temperatures in the two boroughs. Finally, a logarithmic equation was developed to describe the correlation between commercial activity and cooling energy intensity in Jung-gu, the commercial district. Based on these results, recommendations are made regarding the current energy consumption patterns at the district level and government energy policies are suggested to reduce energy consumption and, hence, greenhouse gas emissions, in both commercial and residential buildings.
Highlights
Energy challenges and security have raised concerns worldwide over dwindling supplies of fossil fuels and clearly discernible climate change and global warming by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The total energy consumption in South Korea has significantly increased over thirty years in five industry sectors (Fig. 3), namely the industrial, transportation, residential, commercial, and public sectors, based on an analysis of the statistical data provided in the Yearbook of National and Regional Energy Statistics and the Annual Oil Statistics
The city of Seoul has similar patterns regarding the growth of energy consumption, even though the energy consumption of the industry sector has declined due to the relocation of much of the city’s heavy industry sector to other cities in South Korea
Summary
Energy challenges and security have raised concerns worldwide over dwindling supplies of fossil fuels and clearly discernible climate change and global warming by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Traditional fossil fuels - mainly oil, natural gas and coal - continue to be the dominant sources of primary energy. In the United States, energy-related activates in the built environment account for over 85% of humangenerated greenhouse gas emissions, mostly in the form of carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels (USEPA, 2011). These waste products have a serious adverse effect on our environment, causing air pollution, water and land pollution and, global warming
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