Council underscores importance of green buildings

Energy bills in households or commercial enterprises can be reduced by between 10 and 20 per cent with simple policies that promote efficient heating and cooling measures, Saeed Alabbar the Vice Chairman of Emirates Green Building Council (EGBC), has said.

In an interview with Alrroya.com at the ongoing World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi, Alabbar called for the implementation of energy efficiency measures in buildings, saying that “simple operation measures like ensuring the lights and air conditioning are turned off when not in use or increasing the thermostat set point by one or two degrees can offer significant savings and cost nothing.”

“Energy efficiency and CO2-free technologies for heating and cooling in buildings offer many low-cost options for reducing energy consumption, energy bills and CO2 emissions in buildings. This can either be through retrofitting existing structures or implementing simple energy-efficiency measures,” he said.

A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows how heating and cooling technologies that are energy-efficient and that emit little or no carbon dioxide can dramatically reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions within residential, commercial and public buildings, a sector that IEA says, “currently accounts for around one-third of total final energy consumption.”

The IEA report goes on to show how technologies such as solar thermal, heat pumps, thermal energy storage, and combined heat and power for buildings have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 2 gigatonnes (Gt) by 2050 – around a quarter of today’s emissions from buildings – and save 710 million tonnes oil equivalent (Mtoe) of energy by 2050.

“Much of the potential energy savings could be achieved rapidly, both because the required technologies are available today and because heating and cooling equipment is typically replaced between seven and 30 years – much more rapidly than the buildings themselves, which may last 30 to 100 years or more,” the report states.

Action needed for innovation of clean energy technologies

Emirates Green Building Council has over the past years conducted seminars and released reports which aim to guide the government and industry professionals on the actions needed to achieve the potential for a full range of clean energy technologies.

At the energy summit in Abu Dhabi, the Council held a Focus Day where it highlighted the importance of introducing and strengthening energy efficiency measures in existing buildings, and also offered insights on the need to drive sustainable built environments.

A desire to reduce energy costs is the main factor driving the UAE building retrofit market, however, even with this heightened focus on sustainability, Alabbar does not expect the retrofit market to be the strongest sector of the building industry in the years to come, “simply because energy retrofits do not cost a great amount.”

“In terms of the number of ‘retrofit projects’, this may exceed the number of new constructions. However, I feel that the new construction market will still be the strongest sector by value,” he said.

“There are then further opportunities to reduce building energy use further by implementing measures that have payback periods of two to five years. The commercial benefits of implementing energy efficiency measures in existing buildings will really drive the growth of this sector.”

The most efficient way to reduce buildings energy cost is, “simply to manage the building better,” the executive says. “To unlock further savings, building owners can utilise intelligent building control systems or use energy efficient systems such as solar water heaters or energy recovery ventilators.”

“It is difficult to say which measures are the most cost effective across all buildings as each building is unique, Alabbar says, “however, I would recommend that if a building owner wishes to save energy in their building they should undertake an energy audit by a consultant who can advise them of potential low to no cost measures for saving energy as well as identify the Returns On Investment for various energy retrofit strategies so that the building owner can prioritise the measures that make best commercial sense to them.”

Small percentage of buildings implements measures

The EmiratesGBC has been at the forefront campaigning and promoting the importance of introducing energy efficiency measures in existing buildings. However, Alabbar notes that so far only a small percentage of buildings in the UAE have implemented a serious energy efficiency programme.

“Nevertheless, as the cost of utilities has increased over recent years and with all corporations paying closer attention to their bottom line in the current economic situation, I expect this number to increase substantially,” he said.

Alabbar quashed fears over the risk or perception that key systems and infrastructure features would be compromised when owners consider implementing energy efficiency measures in buildings, saying that “very few energy retrofits impact on the aesthetics of the building as they mostly impact systems that are ‘behind the scenes’.”

“Of course if the buildings envelope is found to be ineffective in that it allows too much solar radiation and heat to enter the building then there may be some modifications that are advisable for the building owner to implement but from my experience this is not a measure implemented on many projects as there are usually more cost effective strategies to consider prior to making envelope modifications – beyond simple measures such as sealing any gaps in the envelope, which has no impact on aesthetics,” he said.

“Building owners should also be aware that the most cost effective time to implement energy savings is during traditional renovation work as the owner saves on downtime and generally systems are more accessible during renovation work thus making the energy retrofit work easier and cheaper.”

When building owners are planning to retrofit existing structures, what or how is the best way to communicate with tenants, before, during and post retrofit?

“This will depend on the type of building and the tenants,” Alabbar says.

“However, as energy retrofit work does not take a huge amount of time and are generally not overly disruptive I would expect that tenants would be quite open to these measures being taken if it can save them over 20 per cent on their energy and water bills. The environmental benefits of implementing the energy retrofit work can also be communicated to tenants to encourage them to support the retrofit programme,” He added.