Energy Efficiency Of Construction Industry Research Articles

The government-production nexus of energy efficiency in China's construction industry: regional difference and factor analysis.

For decades, the construction industry has contributed significantly to China's economic growth. The heavy energy consumption inevitably leads to the release of large amounts of carbon emissions. Improving energy efficiency has been a crucial solution for mitigating the environmental impacts while boosting its green economy in the construction industry. Measuring the energy efficiency in the construction industry considering the quality of government sector is still limited. Using panel provincial data in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper proposes a two-stage dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework integrating the government sector with the production sector in the construction industry, and calculates energy efficiency. The spatial Durbin model is used to analyze the driving forces of energy efficiency. The research findings include (1) the energy efficiency in the eastern region is higher than that in the central and western regions. The mean values of energy efficiency in the eastern, central, and western regions are 0.42, 0.34, and 0.37. (2) Even though governance efficiency is lower than production efficiency, there is a positive correlation between governance efficiency and production efficiency with a correlation coefficient of 0.48. Improving governance efficiency is a significant step to increase the production efficiency and further increase energy efficiency of the construction industry. (3) Digital transformation has a positive effect on governance efficiency but has no effect on production efficiency. The government-production nexus framework provides implications for clarifying the role of government intervention in improving energy efficiency.

Green Total-Factor Energy Efficiency of Construction Industry and Its Driving Factors: Spatial-Temporal Heterogeneity of Yangtze River Economic Belt in China.

With the proposal of the “carbon peak, carbon neutral“ goal, energy efficiency has become one of the key means to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction at this stage. The construction industry, as a cornerstone of China’s economy, is characterized by serious overcapacity, energy waste, and pollution. As a result, academic research on its energy efficiency is gaining traction. This paper employed the Super-EBM model considering undesirable output to evaluate the green total-factor energy efficiency of the construction industry (CIGTFEE) in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2003 to 2018. The spatial-temporal evolution characteristics and spatial heterogeneity of CIGTFEE were analyzed in detail through geospatial analysis. Finally, the driving factors of CIGTFEE were analyzed through a spatial econometric model. The results indicated that, during the sample research period, the CIGTFEE showed a holistic growth trend with volatility. By region, the downstream CIGTFEE grew sharply until 2006 and then remained fairly stable, while the midstream conformed to the “M” trend and the upstream region showed an inverted u-shaped trend; From the perspective of spatial differentiation, the CIGTFEE in YREB shows a significant spatial agglomeration situation, while the spatial agglomeration degree weakened. It existed a ladder-shaped change trend, with the regional average CIGTFEE from high to low levels as follows: Downstream, Midstream, and Upstream, and showed an obvious polarization in the upstream and downstream. From the analysis of the driving factors, CIGTFEE is significantly promoted by economic growth, energy structure, and human capital and suppressed by urbanization level, yet the impact of technological progress and the level of technology and equipment is not significant. In summary, province-specific policies based on spatial and temporal heterogeneity were proposed to improve the CIGTFEE of YREB.

Study on the Impact of Energy Poverty on Energy Efficiency of Construction Industry: Mediating Role of Energy Consumption Structure

In the process of continuously advancing urbanization, the energy efficiency of the construction industry, as a pillar industry of the national economy, has attracted much attention. The imbalance of regional economic development, the difference of regional resource endowment, and the incomplete energy infrastructure in some areas lead to the prominent problem of energy poverty in China. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces and cities from 2008 to 2017, this paper calculates the energy poverty index and the energy efficiency of the construction industry. Using OLS, Tobit, Probit, and other estimation methods, this paper analyzes the internal relationship between energy poverty and the energy efficiency of the construction industry, the mediating role of energy consumption structure, and the moderating effect of technological level and marketization degree. The results show the following: There is a negative correlation between energy poverty and the energy efficiency of the construction industry (Husnain, ENERG POLICY, 2021, 157). The energy consumption structure plays a partial mediating role in the impact of energy poverty on the energy efficiency of the construction industry (Li, CHEM ENG J, 2021, 408). It means that energy poverty inhibits the optimization of the energy consumption structure, and through this process, it also inhibits the improvement of the energy efficiency of the construction industry. The technological level and the degree of marketization play a moderating role in the main effect, which can weaken and strengthen the negative impact of energy poverty on the energy efficiency of the construction industry (Gajdzik, ENERGIES, 2021, 14).

The environmental-adjusted energy efficiency of China's construction industry: a three-stage undesirable SBM-DEA model.

The construction industry is a pillar industry of China's national economy but its problems of high energy consumption, high pollution, and low energy efficiency are increasingly prominent. The study on the energy efficiency of the construction industry is of great significance for improving development quality and achieving the goal of energy saving and emission reduction. In this paper, a three-stage undesirable SBM-DEA model was employed to measure the energy efficiency in the construction industry during 2005-2016. The CO2 directly emitted by the construction industry and indirectly emitted in the production of building materials were used as the undesirable output and the three-stage framework was employed to analyze and eliminate the influence of external environment. The empirical results showed that low efficiency of management in the construction industry is an important factor leading to the low level of energy efficiency in China's construction industry. For the energy efficiency value before and after adjustment, the "high-high" provinces have made full use of the superior external environment by their high management level, while the "high-low" provinces need to fully realize the potential in promoting energy efficiency of its external environment by improving its own management of the construction industry. On the contrary, the "low-high" provinces need to improve the external environment to ease its restrictions on the level of management in the construction industry. Environmental factors and management level should be considered simultaneously for different provinces to improve energy efficiency of the construction industry.

A total energy efficiency evaluation framework based on embodied energy for the construction industry and the spatio-temporal evolution analysis

PurposeAs a typical resource energy-intensive industry, the scale of construction industry has been expanding rapidly owing to the large-scale urbanization and the economic booming in China, which results in a sharp increase in the energy consumption of construction industry. However, it is infeasible to mitigate the energy consumption by reducing the production activities of construction industry. Therefore, improving the energy efficiency of construction industry is essential for energy saving. Construction industry has close relationships with other industries. The production activities have not only consumed a great deal of energy but they have also generated a massive energy consumption from other industries. Previous literature studied the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry. However, no research has been found focusing on the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry and indirectly by the related industries. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a total energy efficiency evaluation framework to measure the energy efficiency of construction industry in depth.Design/methodology/approachThis paper employs the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method and the framework of embodied energy efficiency (EEE) to establish a total energy efficiency evaluation model. Next, the comprehensive analysis of direct energy efficiency (DEE) and EEE in different provinces with various levels of urbanization and various economic levels is conducted.FindingsThe results show that the embodied energy intensity and its regularities differ greatly between provinces. From the comparison of DEE and EEE, the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu remain DEA-effective and Hainan is the only province in which the EEE is higher than DEE in 2002, 2007 and 2012. Besides, the DEE and EEE in the provinces with higher levels of urbanization and high economic levels are not more effective than those in the provinces with relatively lower levels of urbanization and low economic levels.Originality/valuePrevious literature studied the efficiency of energy consumed directly by the construction industry while ignoring the energy consumed indirectly by the related industries. Besides, no research has been found focusing on the regulation of energy efficiency in different provinces with different levels of urbanization and different economic levels. It can be concluded that the increasing levels of urbanization and higher economic levels have not brought development and benefits for improving DEE and EEE. Therefore, under the condition that the self-regulation of construction industry and market fail to facilitate the improvement of DEE and EEE in China, policymakers should develop policies and market incentive mechanism to encourage construction industry for employing new technologies to improve the energy efficiency. Since the EEE can reveal the energy efficiency in depth, the evaluation method of EEE should be paid more attention. Besides the fact that the EEE is lower than the DEE in almost all provinces, except Hainan province, the industrial structure is essential to develop the EEE. Hence, improving the energy structure, increasing the energy efficiency and developing new and renewable energy are the basic energy strategies in China.

The energy efficiency of China’s regional construction industry based on the three-stage DEA model and the DEA-DA model

China’s construction industry has constantly been confronted with the problems, such as high resource consumption, serious pollution and low energy efficiency. Thus, improving the energy efficiency of the construction industry and reducing its energy consumption can not only promote the sustainable development of the socio-economy and eco-economy, but also enhance the overall development level of the construction industry. In the context, the objectives are to put forward a set of systematic methodologies for measuring the energy efficiency of the regional construction industry and analyzing its change trends. First, the energy efficiency index system of the construction industry and its influencing factors are constructed through the literature review. Second, two research methods (the three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model and the Data Envelopment Analysis-Discriminant Analysis (DEA-DA) model) are applied to analyze the energy efficiency in 30 provinces of China and the change trends from 2003 to 2011. The results indicate that after eliminating the influence of the environment factors and random errors, the energy efficiency values of the construction industry in most of the provinces were improved. The mean of China’s energy efficiency of the construction industry in each year was approximately 0.92. Except Shandong with the lowest values, the mean of the other provinces was over 0.8, which reflected that the energy management and utilization levels in the construction industry were relative mature. However, the energy efficiency in most of provinces fluctuated constantly during these nine years, with the peak in 2004 and a downward trend in the overall efficiency after 2004. From the regional aspect, the energy efficiency of the construction industry in the eastern, central and western regions decreased successively; as the development level of the local economy had less significant effects on the energy efficiency, the gaps among the three regions were not obvious.

Technical regulation in low-rise construction in the context of heat supply energy efficient projects

The present article is devoted to the problem of energy saving and energy efficiency in construction industry and solving the issues of technical regulation and development of the sufficient regulatory basis. Economic calculations have been performed to study the influence of energy efficient heat sources and application of energy saving ventilation systems on the total operation costs. The efficiency of their use has been proved. The use of energy efficient heat sources and energy saving ventilation systems allowed significant reduction of utility expenses providing comfortable living conditions for the residents.

An Empirical Research on the Energy Efficiency of Construction Industry and its Influencing Factors in Xi’an

This paper collect 5yearss data to study the energy efficiency in Xian, use least squares to analyze the factors how to influence the energy efficiency. The result shows that: the cluster has the biggest influence on the energy efficiency. Technological advance and construction industrial scale can influence the energy efficiency to a certain degree. The energy price influence the energy efficiency to a small degree. To guarantee the Twelfth Five-Year Plans goal, we should encourage development on the energy conservation technology at first; Then , build a reasonable system of energy prices; At last ,enhance the construction industrial scale and concentration.