Tertiary Buildings Research Articles

Technical and economic assessment of hydrogen-based electricity generation from PV sources in tertiary buildings: a case study of a hospital building in Algeria.

The largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide emissions is the global energy system, which means transforming the global energy system is one of the most significant ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. Buildings play a critical role in our transition to a lower-carbon future, accounting for approximately 47% of global energy consumption and about 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable hydrogen represents one of the most environmentally friendly options for energy generation. This study presents an energetic, economic, and environmental impact of a self-sufficient system for energy production from renewable energy sources in buildings. To achieve this objective, a hydrogen-based generation system was selected to meet all the electrical requirements of tertiary building in Algeria throughout the year. The results indicate that the hybrid renewable energy system can avoid the emission of approximately 1056 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Furthermore, the payback period is 7years. These results clearly demonstrate that the integration of hydrogen energy in buildings is the optimal choice for environmental sustainability.

Navigating the transition: Modelling the path for net-zero European building sector

Transition towards a net-zero building sector offers substantial potential to mitigate climate change impacts and thus plays a pivotal role in meeting the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement. Stakeholders often use mathematical models to understand the true potential for mitigating emissions by reducing the energy demand of the building sector. However, the existing models rarely provide insights into net-zero pathways for both the residential and tertiary buildings as this is a complex sector to calculate the future pathways towards net-zero. Hence, uncertainties in the associated policy decisions persist. Therefore, this study uses the High-Efficiency Building (HEB) energy model to calculate the energy demand reduction potential as well as to analyze the net-zero feasibility of the building sector for each of the European Union Member States. This research uses four scenarios, which are designed to represent scenario-specific levels of commitment the European Union Member States regarding the application of different energy efficiency measures, to provide insights into the consequences of today's policy decisions by 2060. The findings of this study show that energy demand of the building sector can be reduced substantially and can even become nearly net-zero by 2060. Based on the demand reduction potential of the building sector, it can be concluded that the building renovation rate and construction of new advanced buildings not only provides unprecedented potential for reducing energy demand but also paves the way for reaching climate neutrality goals.

Local Energy Community as a Small Hydrogen Valley – H2LEC

A Local energy community (LEC) is a vertically nested system in energy supply and an ecosystem with joint values and objectives. On-site integrated hydrogen-based systems connected to the grid, and consisting of electrolyser, hydrogen storage and fuel cell system - hydrogen prosumers - provide efficient balancing of local energy consumption and local production of renewable energy that can be extended over annual cycles. There is no transport of hydrogen needed. Thus, the H2LEC – Local energy community with integrated hydrogen systems - represents the carrier of dispersed energy and hydrogen production as a complement of concentrated energy and hydrogen production: on average, H2LEC will predictably achieve at least 75% self-supply. Additionally, with Combined Heat-and-Power systems, coupling to the thermal system adds to energy efficiency. H2LEC represents a virtual socio-economic system based on community values and thus engages initiative, innovation and capital of local actors, new technology start-ups and local industry; and represents opportunities for new disruptive business models. It brings into the energy supply system new players – prosumer who actively trade their flexibilities among themselves and on the external markets, and stimulates new enabling technologies - notably automated close-to-real time trading - thereby boosting end-to-end automated solutions. The H2LEC create the need and the market for smaller integrated hydrogen-based systems ranging from a few kWe for residential homes to a few MWe units for larger industrial companies or local districts with a complete range of capacities in between, for public or tertiary buildings and smaller enterprises. Thus, they provide an opening for participation of SMEs in local and international value chains and will create a strong complementary energy bottom-up pillar and hydrogen supply system locally and in Europe.

Mixed-integer disciplined convex programming approach applied to the optimal energy supply of near-zero energy buildings

Energy needs in the buildings sector accounts for 40 % of global energy demand. Therefore, the implementation of several renewable energy sources is necessary to reduce this demand. The design stage of a decentralized generation project requires quantifying the power to be installed and the energy forecast for each source throughout the useful life of the building. This study develops a novel optimization algorithm for a long-term economic function based on mixed-integer disciplined convex programming (MIDCP) which guarantees the sustainability of the building and its energy systems. The robust algorithm integrates risk management of intermittent sources, technical and economic parameters of selected technologies, and life cycle analysis (LCA) of different energy systems, including storage. Furthermore, the penetration of green hydrogen into the distributed generation mix is evaluated as an important contribution. Meteorological and energy demand variables of two antagonistic scenarios were also used as inputs to the algorithm. As a result, the optimal energy supply sizing for tertiary buildings in the two defined locations was obtained. The results of the simulations have achieved an optimal convergence of 100 % in the proposed scenarios, with a resolution time of 14 s and using a memory of about 183 MB. The simulations suggest a higher penetration of green hydrogen in scenarios where supply and investment costs decrease to gray hydrogen supply levels, reaching up to 81 % coverage of the thermal demand of the building. Hybrid energy systems under favorable conditions show a penetration of about 92 % within the distributed generation mix. The developed tool could enable decision-makers to optimally plan distributed generation projects in buildings based on economic, policy, and geographic conditions.

Analisis Pemberian Air Irigasi pada Daerah Layanan Petak Tersier dengan Luas Maksimal 50 Ha

Irrigation network is one of the determining factors that are important in regulating the supply of water to agricultural land. If the network cannot meet the needs of irrigation water on agricultural lands, will cause a decrease in problem pruductifity on agricultural land. The purpose of this research is to know the water discharge and assess the effectiveness of the grant of the irrigation water tertiary swath size of maximum 50 ha on rice plant growth phase. The irrigation network that can not meet the needs of irrigation area water means the granting of water in irrigation service areas is not appropriate. The methods used in this research is a survey method. discharge measurement carried out at specified tertiary irrigation channels at random in the field. Results of the study showed measurable discharge on tertiary buildings by using door type Crump of de Gruyter is larger than the discharge should be available, the effectiveness of the grant of the irrigation water which is pretty good going on in the area with extensive irrigation services 30 – 40 ha, with a value of efficiency reached 68%. Keywords: Irrigation network, Kota Gajah, Performance of irrigation, Tertiary level irrigation

Numerical simulation of the thermal behavior of Silica Aerogel in a commercial building in Tunisia

In order to ensure energy savings and improve occupant comfort in a building, it is necessary to explore passive approaches such as optimizing insulation, orientation and the choice of appropriate materials. Among these materials are Silica Aerogel, capable of playing an insulating role while maintaining energy performance. The objective of this study is to simulate the dynamic thermal behavior of an administrative office model with and without Silica Aerogel material using TRNSYS software. The office temperature is assumed to vary over time or imposed at the set temperature. The results show that the influence of different parameters (meteorological temperature, the composition of a wall, the solar flux density and the indoor air set temperature) and the nature of the walls (with insulation (Silica Aerogel) and without insulation) have a significant effect on the thermal behavior of a tertiary building and on energy consumption in heating or air conditioning mode.

Re-NetTA Project: organizational models for promoting re-manufacturing chains of building products in the Lombard manufacturing district

In view of the circular economy transition, the building sector is facing the challenge of overcoming conventional organizational models that follow a “take-make-dispose” in favor of circular models, exploiting re-manufacturing to close the loop. Starting from the analysis of re-manufacturing practices well affirmed in other industrial sectors and the lesson learned in terms of key features, the paper focuses on circular strategies and new organizational models and tools for short-life building products coming from renewal interventions in office, exhibition, and retail. In particular, three novel circular models are presented, based on the cross-sectorial successful key features of reuse/re-manufacturing activities and the point of view of stakeholders, including manufacturers, service providers, policymakers, and the third sector. This collaborative effort took place in the context of the research “Re-NetTA - Re-manufacturing Networks for Tertiary Architectures - New organizational models and tools for re-manufacturing and reusing short-life components coming from tertiary building renewal”, leading the knowledge sharing among the involved players to support innovative solutions.

Optimizing Energy Consumption: A Case Study of LVDC Nanogrid Implementation in Tertiary Buildings on La Réunion Island

In the context of an insulated area with a subtropical climate, such as La Réunion island, it is crucial to reduce the energy consumption of buildings and develop local renewable energy sources to achieve energy autonomy. Direct current (DC) nanogrids could facilitate this by reducing the energy conversion steps, especially for solar energy. This article presents the deployment and efficiency evaluation of a 48 VDC low-voltage direct current (LVDC) nanogrid, from conception to real-world installation within a company. The nanogrid consists of a photovoltaic power plant, a lithium–iron–phosphate (LFP) battery, and DC end-use equipment, such as LED lighting and DC fans, for two individual offices. For identical test conditions, which are at an equivalent cabling distance and with the same final power demand, the total power consumed by the installation is measured for several stages from 50 to 400 W, according to a 100% DC configuration or a conventional DC/AC/DC PV configuration incorporating an inverter and AC/DC converter. The methodology used enables a critical view to be taken of the installation, assessing both its efficiency and its limitations. Energy savings of between 23% and 40% are measured in DC for a power limit identified at 150 W for a distance of 25 m. These results show that it is possible to supply 48 VDC in an innovative way to terminal equipment consuming no more than 100 W, such as lighting and air fans, using the IEEE 802.3 bt power over ethernet (PoE) protocol, while at the same time saving energy. The nanogrid hardware and software infrastructure, the methodology employed for efficiency quantification, and the measurement results are described in the paper.

Evaluation of the renewable energy application in Mediterranean hotels: Case study the Balearic Islansd` hotels.

The strategic changes in the energy management are usually increased after petrol crisis or policy changes. The Kyoto protocol and the increase of fossil fuel price make necessary a deep change in the design and the management of the energy facilities. Spain in general is living now these big changes, and there is an upsurge of installation of renewable energy sources. Hotels are high energy consumers in the tertiary building sector. Improved service quality forces hotel building facilities and installations to be maintained to the highest standards, thus renovations are becoming common to remain competitive. This offers great opportunities for promoting renewable energy sources (RES) and rational use of energy (RUE) in the hotel sector. The Balearic Islands have been one of the first tourist destinations; there are about half a million beds available. There is a rise in the number of hotels that, while improving the energy facilities, can supply a part of the energy consumption by RES, without change the comfort.

Evaluation of the Energy Consumption in Mediterranean Islands Hotels: Case Study: The Balearic Islands Hotels.

Hotels rank amongst the highest energy consumers in the tertiary building sector [4]. Improved service quality mandates that hotel buildings, facilities and installations are maintained to the highest standards, thus renovations are becoming common in order to keep up with competitivity. This offers great opportunities for promoting energetically efficient measures, exploitation of renewable energy sources (RES) and rational use of energy (RUE) in the hotel sector. The Balearic Islands are one of the first tourist destinations with about half million beds available. Many successful hotel companies that have emerged during the 70’s and the 80’s are now exporting their experience to other expanding destinations. The Balearic Government has studied about 200 hotels in order to investigate the levels of energy consumption and sustainability among them. This research has been performed with the intention of appreciating the opportunities of efficiency improvement of the energy facilities so as to supply, as much as possible, with RES the energy demand.

A cascading model for nudging employees towards energy-efficient behaviour in tertiary buildings.

Energy-related occupant behaviour in the built environment is considered crucial when aiming towards Energy Efficiency (EE), especially given the notion that people are most often unaware and disengaged regarding the impacts of energy-consuming habits. In order to affect such energy-related behaviour, various approaches have been employed, being the most common the provision of recommendations towards more energy-efficient actions. In this work, the authors extend prior research findings in an effort to automatically identify the optimal Persuasion Strategy (PS), out of ten pre-selected by experts, tailored to a user (i.e., the context to trigger a message, allocate a task or providing cues to enact an action). This process aims to successfully influence the employees' decisions about EE in tertiary buildings. The framework presented in this study utilizes cultural traits and socio-economic information. It is based on one of the largest survey datasets on this subject, comprising responses from 743 users collected through an online survey in four countries across Europe (Spain, Greece, Austria and the UK). The resulting framework was designed as a cascade of sequential data-driven prediction models. The first step employs a particular case of matrix factorisation to rank the ten PP in terms of preference for each user, followed by a random forest regression model that uses these rankings as a filtering step to compute scores for each PP and conclude with the best selection for each user. An ex-post assessment of the individual steps and the combined ensemble revealed increased accuracy over baseline non-personalised methods. Furthermore, the analysis also sheds light on important user characteristics to take into account for future interventions related to EE and the most effective persuasion strategies to adopt based on user data. Discussion and implications of the reported results are provided in the text regarding the flourishing field of personalisation to motivate pro-environmental behaviour change in tertiary buildings.

Energy saving and economic competitiveness of solar desiccant cooling technology – A case study of the Moroccan Kingdom

As many countries in the world, Morocco is vulnerable to climate change having direct impacts on its main economic sectors highly dependent on natural resources. This is exemplified, among other things, by long periods of drought, increase of average temperatures and successive heat waves. These circumstances have increased the demand for cooling energy, particularly in tertiary building where centralized air conditioning systems still predominant. Currently, the installed power capacity seems to be insufficient to respond effectively to this increasing demand. In this context, sustainable alternatives to traditional cooling systems such as solar air conditioning systems can be a suitable option for energy efficiency and security. Solar desiccant cooling systems present a great opportunity since they do not use any ozone-depleting coolants. This study discusses the techno-economic feasibility of solar desiccant systems in tertiary building, in particular a conference room, compared to a conventional air handling unit. Besides the use of air solar collectors to heat up the regeneration air, the particularity of the studied system is the use of exhaust air leaving the desiccant wheel and purge zone to preheat regeneration air. Accordingly, simulations were performed in three climatic regions with different enthalpy loads. The main result of this work is that solar desiccant cooling systems can be an attractive investment if appropriate economic conditions are met with a substantial governmental support, since a significant energy-saving of about 77% can be achieved compared to conventional systems.

Positive climate and health impacts from upscaled use of heat pumps and solar panels in technology packages in EU-27 by 2050

Achieving the European Union's (EU-27) climate targets for 2050 requires moving away from fossil fuels, for which the necessary heating and cooling (H&C) technologies are mostly already available in the domestic sector. These H&C technologies, such as heat pumps and solar panels (photovoltaic, thermal and hybrid photovoltaic-thermal), reduce air pollution and thus have positive climate and health effects, but require the increased use of limited materials. Although the integration of such technologies into technology packages (TPs) further increases energy efficiency, monetary values of the climate and health effects of these TPs have not been assessed from a life cycle perspective including the production phase. Therefore, we monetize the full impacts of adopting such innovative H&C TPs in refurbished and new residential and tertiary buildings in the EU-27. With that aim, we combine an analysis of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions from the life cycle assessment of the TPs with long-term scenarios of H&C demand, to generate country-specific emissions (2030 and 2050). Accordingly, climate and health impacts are estimated using the Greenhouse gas and Air pollution Interactions and Synergies and Alpha RiskPoll models. The total estimated monetary benefits of TP implementation in the EU-27, including its health effects (dominated by reduced premature mortality) and climate impacts, are approximately 15–49 billion €2015 in 2030 and 34–123 billion €2015 in 2050. Furthermore, the benefits are 13 %–15 % higher if the health effects on all European countries are considered. These substantial benefits can justify the broader deployment of TP technologies in the future.

Analysis of the Final Energy Use by Sectors in City of Vidin

According to the initiative "The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (CoM)" and within the framework of the EU-funded "Positive Energy Areas Project", the Municipality of Vidin should establish a "Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan". The city's sustainable energy development plans aim to reduce CO2 emissions by 40% up to 2030 and develop a comprehensive climate change adaptation strategy at the local level or integrate it into existing plans. The initiative envisages actions both for mitigating climate change and also for climate adaptation at the local level. This paper presents the results of the first part of the process for establishing the "Sustainable Energy and Action Plan of the Municipality of Vidin", including the assessment and calculation of the final energy use in the city by the different sectors. The research aims to present the main data sources necessary for СО2 emissions inventory at the city level and to process, validate, and analyze used statistical data for defining the final energy use by different sectors in one Bulgarian municipality. The purpose of this assessment is to determine final energy use by different sectors and by types of energy sources. The results from the analysis and evaluation of the final energy use in the sectors "Residential buildings", "Municipal buildings", "Industry", "Tertiary buildings", "Public lighting" and "Transport" will serve to conduct a baseline of CO2 emissions inventory, which is a part of the “Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan”. These results also could help the local authorities and key energy players to identify and implement the most suitable measures and actions for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Profitability of filtering harmonics by passive filters for tertiary buildings: Application to a university of higher education

Profitability of filtering harmonics by passive filters for tertiary buildings: Application to a university of higher education

GreEn-ER–Electricity consumption data of a tertiary building

The increased use of intermittent renewable energy sources makes the use of machine learning methods combined with demand-side management more and more frequent. Machine learning algorithms rely on data to identify patterns and learn insights. Hence, data availability is of utmost importance, and the more, the merrier. Therefore, this data report aims to present a dataset concerning the electricity consumption of a tertiary building located in the French Alps region (Grenoble) in 2017 and 2018. It is a massively monitored and controlled building with about 330 electricity meters, whose measurement data constitute the dataset. The data were collected directly from the building management system and correspond to raw data, without any pre-treatment. The dataset also includes Python notebooks that allow for understanding the system design, navigating the data, and performing some simple analyses. This is a publicly available dataset that tries to fill the gap of the availability of electricity consumption data, especially regarding tertiary buildings.

Two-stage centralised management of Local Energy Market for prosumers integration in a community-based P2P

Centrally managed or community-based P2P Energy Communities are at the forefront of the literature. A collectively shared energy configuration maximises the energy use of local generators. An interesting scenario is energy sharing when residential buildings conform to an Energy Community with tertiary buildings as prosumers. This article introduces a two-stage centralised management of the Local Energy Market for prosumers integration. In the first stage, energy planning is carried out. In this phase, the Local Energy Market Operator optimises the energy dispatch based on energy prosumers’ predictions (previously performed by each participant using Boosting Decision Tree technique) and Mixed Integer Linear Programming. In the second stage, real time management is performed, where energy storage systems (individual Batteries and Central Energy Storage System) are employed to address the energy deviations. To address the viability of the proposed management, in the first place, the community-based P2P is compared to other Low Voltage configurations (Collective Self-Consumption and Full P2P) for one-stage management, where the community-based P2P approach obtains the best results in technical, economic, and environmental aspects. Subsequently, the two-stage management is examined with local Batteries and combining local Batteries with a Central Energy Storage System. The results show that the proposal, integrating local and central storage, significantly improves a local energy community’s techno-economic and environmental indicators regarding other energy management market configurations.

Structural Evolution and Properties of Praseodymium Antimony Oxochlorides Based on a Chain-like Tertiary Building Unit

Unveiling the structural evolution of single-crystalline compounds based on certain building units may help greatly in guiding the design of complex structures. Herein, a series of praseodymium antimony oxohalide crystals have been isolated under solvothermal conditions via adjusting the solvents used, that is, [HN(CH2CH3)3][FeII(2,2'-bpy)3][Pr4Sb12O18Cl15]·EtOH (1) (2,2'-bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine), [HN(CH2CH3)3][FeII(2,2'-bpy)3]2[Pr4Sb12O18Cl14)2Cl]·N(CH2CH3)3·2H2O (2), and (H3O)[Pr4Sb12O18Cl12.5(TEOA)0.5]·2.5EtOH (3) (TEOA = mono-deprotonated triethanolamine anion). Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that all the three structures feature an anionic zig-zag chain of [Pr4Sb12O18Cl15-x]n as the tertiary building unit (TBU), which is formed by interconnections of praseodymium antimony oxochloride clusters (denoted as {Pr4Sb12}) as secondary building units. Interestingly, different arrangements or linkages of chain-like TBUs result in one-dimensional, two-dimensional layered, and three-dimensional structures of 1, 2, and 3, respectively, thus demonstrating clearly the structural evolution of metal oxohalide crystals. The title compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and UV-Vis spectroscopy, and the photodegradation for methyl blue in an aqueous solution of compound 1 has been preliminarily studied. This work offers a way to deeply understand the assembly process of intricate lanthanide-antimony(III) oxohalide structures at the atomic level.

Is IoT monitoring key to improve building energy efficiency? Case study of a smart campus in Spain

This work validates and demonstrates the potential of a methodology based on a continuous monitoring system with real time measurements, as a key support to make decisions on buildings energy systems based on quantitative data. For this work, a continuous loop-based monitoring methodology was designed and implemented to enhance the performance of Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems by improving the energy efficiency of university buildings and the quality of life of the people who use them. The results from the case study, used to demonstrate the proposed methodology, can be extrapolated to the entire university in order to transform it into a smart campus. The case study also shows that the continuous measurement of temperatures allows to avoid excessive heating, reducing unnecessary energy consumption. Additionally, the case study shows the importance of monitoring CO2 concentration in rooms where occupancy is fluctuating, since it enables a control of the HVAC system based on the instantaneous CO2 level (and predictive in the immediate aftermath). This proposed measurement can save between 40% and 70% of HVAC energy consumption. The positive results obtained in this research show that implementing Internet of Things (IoT) smart ecosystems contribute to promote data-driven decisions in public tertiary buildings among decision-makers, politicians, and other stakeholders.

Single‐Crystal Superstructures via Hierarchical Assemblies of Giant Rubik's Cubes as Tertiary Building Units

AbstractIntricate superstructures possess unusual structural features and promising applications. The preparation of superstructures with single‐crystalline nature are conducive to understanding the structure–property relationship, however, remains an intriguing challenge. Herein we put forward a new hierarchical assembly strategy towards rational and precise construction of intricate single‐crystal superstructures. Firstly, two unprecedented superclusters in Rubik's cube's form with a size of ≈2×2×2 nm3are constructed by aggregation of eight {Pr4Sb12} oxohalide clusters as secondary building units (SBUs). Then, the Rubik's cubes further act as isolable tertiary building units (TBUs) to assemble diversified single‐crystal superstructures. Importantly, intermediate assembly states are captured, which helps illustrate the evolution of TBU‐based superstructures and thus provides a profound understanding of the assembly process of superstructures at the atomic level.