Abstract
Buildings account for 36% of the final energy demand and 39% of CO2 emissions worldwide. Targets for increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and reducing building related emissions is an important part of the energy policy to reach the Paris agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. While nearly zero energy buildings are the new norm in the EU, the research is advancing towards positive energy buildings, which contribute to the surrounding community by providing emission-free energy. This paper suggests a definition for positive energy building and presents the framework, elements, and challenges of the concept. In a positive energy building, the annual renewable energy production in the building site exceeds the energy demand of the building. This increases two-way interactions with energy grids, requiring a broader approach compared to zero energy buildings. The role of energy flexibility grows when the share of fluctuating renewable energy increases. The presented framework is designed with balancing two important perspectives: technical and user-centric approaches. It can be accommodated to different operational conditions, regulations, and climates. Potential challenges and opportunities are also discussed, such as the present issues in the building’s balancing boundary, electric vehicle integration, and smart readiness indicators.
Highlights
Positive energy buildings can have a significant contribution to the efforts for mitigating climate change, by providing the surrounding community with renewable energy, while ensuring a good living and working environment for its own occupants.Published: 1 October 20211.1
The majority of the building stock will be old and inefficient still for quite some time, meaning that it is not foreseen that every building would be a positive energy buildings (PEBs), but instead, PEBs are supporting to increase the share of renewable energy production in built environments, and to balance the local energy grids
The literature does not provide a clear definition for a positive energy building (PEB), but the nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs) and net-zero energy building (NetZEB) definitions could be used as the basis for this
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Directive (EPBD), which regulates that all new buildings in EU countries need to be nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs) by the end of 2020 [3]. Cabeza and Chàfer carried out a thorough review of technological options and strategies towards zero energy buildings contributing to climate change mitigation [10]. Better utilization and management of energy flexibility in buildings can create financial benefits for building owners and users [12] These developments, when combined, lead to new possibilities for more sustainable and efficient buildings, and the introduction of positive energy buildings (PEBs) as the phase. NetZEBs and PEBs are already widely under research, and a variety of examples is already emerging [13] They mostly use similar technologies as NZEBs, but with an increased amount of different renewable energy production technologies integrated into the same building. As for the NZEBs, good energy efficiency should be a requirement for the PEBs
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