Abstract
The buildings sector is one of the least sustainable activities in the world, accounting for around 40% of the total global energy demand. With the aim to reduce the environmental impact of this sector, the use of renewable energy sources coupled with energy storage systems in buildings has been investigated in recent years. Innovative solutions for cooling, heating, and domestic hot water in buildings can contribute to the buildings’ decarbonization by achieving a reduction of building electrical consumption needed to keep comfortable conditions. However, the environmental impact of a new system is not only related to its electrical consumption from the grid, but also to the environmental load produced in the manufacturing and disposal stages of system components. This study investigates the environmental impact of an innovative system proposed for residential buildings in Mediterranean climate through a life cycle assessment. The results show that, due to the complexity of the system, the manufacturing and disposal stages have a high environmental impact, which is not compensated by the reduction of the impact during the operational stage. A parametric study was also performed to investigate the effect of the design of the storage system on the overall system impact.
Highlights
The building sector is nowadays responsible for a considerable share of worldwide energy consumption, accounting for close to 40% of the overall energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere [1]
The results showed that the lowest environmental impact was associated with the second system, which had PV production but no storage system
The results showed that the implementation of phase change materials (PCMs) was able to reduce the overall environmental impacts, and that climate conditions and type of PCM used had a strong influence on that reduction
Summary
The building sector is nowadays responsible for a considerable share of worldwide energy consumption, accounting for close to 40% of the overall energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere [1]. Different energy policies and initiatives at regional, national, and international levels were put in place focusing on the reduction of the environmental impact of the built environment. European policies aimed in the past few years at a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to meet previous targets established for 2020 [3] and new targets foreseen for 2030 consisting of a reduction of 40% of carbon emissions with respect to the levels of 1990. According to the United Nations [4], sustainable energy production and consumption is one of the goals established to achieve economic growth and sustainable development, and the efficient management of natural resources and the way toxic waste and pollutants are disposed of play an important role in achieving this goal.
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