Benefits Of Energy Efficiency Programs Research Articles

Energy productivity analysis framework for buildings: a case study of GCC region

A new analysis framework is developed and applied to assess the benefits of building energy efficiency policies and programs. One of the main advantages of the new energy productivity analysis is that it accounts for both economic and energy performances of energy efficiency actions using only one metric. Specifically, the approach applies the concept of energy productivity to the building sector and accounts for both value added and energy savings of energy efficiency measures. Moreover, the proposed analysis accounts for all quantifiable benefits of energy efficiency programs including economic, environmental, and social. In this paper, the general guidelines for the energy productivity analysis are first described. Then, the analysis is applied to evaluate energy efficiency renewable energy programs for both existing and new buildings in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The analysis results indicate that retrofitting the existing building stock can provide significant benefits and can improve the energy productivity of the building sector in all GCC countries and free up large energy volumes and investment potentials to the development of other economic sectors. In particular, the analysis indicates that reduction in energy consumption, peak demand, and carbon emissions due to deep retrofit programs for the existing building stock can double the energy productivity of the GCC region.

Benefits of energy efficiency programs for residential buildings in Bahrain

This paper outlines the approach and the cost-effectiveness potential for designing and retrofitting residential buildings to be energy-efficient in Bahrain. The analysis is focused on residential buildings since these buildings consume over 48% of the total electricity used in Bahrain. The optimization analysis has the benefit to assess both at the individual building and the national building stock levels, the potential of the application of currently proven measures and technologies to improve the energy efficiency of the building sector in Bahrain. A sequential search technique is utilized to optimize the design of residential buildings in Manama in order to minimize life cycle energy costs using a wide range of energy efficiency measures. In the analysis, design features of air-conditioned single-family homes are considered including orientation, window location and size, glazing type, wall and roof insulation levels, lighting fixtures, appliances, and efficiencies of heating and cooling systems. Based on the optimization results, the potential energy use savings obtained for the optimal designs as well as the size of the photovoltaic panels required for net-zero energy residential building designs are estimated for Bahrain. Then, the economic and environmental impacts of developing and enforcing a more stringent building energy efficiency code are evaluated for Bahrain. The analysis indicate that the development and enforcement of a more stringent building energy efficiency code improve the energy productivity of buildings as well as the country with reduction of over 320 GWh in annual electricity consumption and 87 MW in peak demand. The analysis extended to the existing residential building stock indicates that Bahrain has the potential to cost-effectively decrease its energy consumption in the building sector by 62% with a reduction of 55% in its electrical peak demand in the future compared to the business as usual scenario.

Non-energy benefits: Workhorse or unicorn of energy efficiency programs?

Non-energy benefits of energy efficiency programs have been studied as early as 1993, and there have been hundreds of papers and reports published since then, many of them finding that NEB are significant. Yet many U.S. states do not include NEB in their cost-benefit analyses. This article tries to provide some insight into this mismatch between the findings of NEB research and policy by analyzing the empirical basis of such research.

The public health benefits of insulation retrofits in existing housing in the United States.

BackgroundMethodological limitations make it difficult to quantify the public health benefits of energy efficiency programs. To address this issue, we developed a risk-based model to estimate the health benefits associated with marginal energy usage reductions and applied the model to a hypothetical case study of insulation retrofits in single-family homes in the United States.MethodsWe modeled energy savings with a regression model that extrapolated findings from an energy simulation program. Reductions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions and particle precursors (SO2 and NOx) were quantified using fuel-specific emission factors and marginal electricity analyses. Estimates of population exposure per unit emissions, varying by location and source type, were extrapolated from past dispersion model runs. Concentration-response functions for morbidity and mortality from PM2.5 were derived from the epidemiological literature, and economic values were assigned to health outcomes based on willingness to pay studies.ResultsIn total, the insulation retrofits would save 800 TBTU (8 × 1014 British Thermal Units) per year across 46 million homes, resulting in 3,100 fewer tons of PM2.5, 100,000 fewer tons of NOx, and 190,000 fewer tons of SO2 per year. These emission reductions are associated with outcomes including 240 fewer deaths, 6,500 fewer asthma attacks, and 110,000 fewer restricted activity days per year. At a state level, the health benefits per unit energy savings vary by an order of magnitude, illustrating that multiple factors (including population patterns and energy sources) influence health benefit estimates. The health benefits correspond to $1.3 billion per year in externalities averted, compared with $5.9 billion per year in economic savings.ConclusionIn spite of significant uncertainties related to the interpretation of PM2.5 health effects and other dimensions of the model, our analysis demonstrates that a risk-based methodology is viable for national-level energy efficiency programs.