Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Potential for the Building Sector in the Arab Region

The paper overviews the current energy demand trends in the building sector for the Arab region using reported historical energy consumption. Moreover, the paper describes the current energy efficiency policies and regulations for all the Arab countries specific to both residential and commercial bu...

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Main Author: Moncef Krarti
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-11-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/22/4279
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author Moncef Krarti
author_facet Moncef Krarti
author_sort Moncef Krarti
collection DOAJ
description The paper overviews the current energy demand trends in the building sector for the Arab region using reported historical energy consumption. Moreover, the paper describes the current energy efficiency policies and regulations for all the Arab countries specific to both residential and commercial buildings. Finally, the paper evaluates potential benefits for large-scale energy efficiency programs specific to new and existing building stocks within the Arab region using a bottom-up analysis approach. The analysis of the available energy consumption for all the Arab countries has shown that the Arab region presents a significant variation in energy consumption levels between its sub-regions and countries. Indeed, the Arab region includes oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia with the largest energy use per capita in the World with over 9000 kWh/person of electricity used annually in buildings. However, the same region has the least developed countries such as Sudan and Yemen with the lowest energy use per capita in the World with barely 100 kWh/person/year of electrical consumption. The review of the existing regulations has indicated that several Arab countries have not implemented any energy efficiency codes and standards for building envelope, lighting, heating and cooling equipment, and appliances. A cost-effectiveness analysis has indicated that the Arab region can incur significant benefits in upgrading the energy efficiency of its new and existing buildings especially its households. Specifically, the adoption and the enforcement of stringent energy efficiency codes for new residential and commercial buildings can result in a reduction of 12.7 TWh/year in final annual energy consumption for the Arab region. Moreover, retrofit programs targeting existing buildings can save up to 470 TWh or a third of the building sector final energy consumption per year after 2030. Combining comprehensive energy efficiency requirements for new buildings and extensive retrofit programs for existing buildings would reduce the total final energy consumption of the building sector in the Arab region by 600 TWh by 2030 and by 900 TWh by 2050 if all the energy programs start to be implemented by 2020.
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spelling doaj.art-3df0bcfb4da1467a8c51de06d7c305672022-12-22T03:09:59ZengMDPI AGEnergies1996-10732019-11-011222427910.3390/en12224279en12224279Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Potential for the Building Sector in the Arab RegionMoncef Krarti0Building Systems Program, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; krarti@colorado.eduThe paper overviews the current energy demand trends in the building sector for the Arab region using reported historical energy consumption. Moreover, the paper describes the current energy efficiency policies and regulations for all the Arab countries specific to both residential and commercial buildings. Finally, the paper evaluates potential benefits for large-scale energy efficiency programs specific to new and existing building stocks within the Arab region using a bottom-up analysis approach. The analysis of the available energy consumption for all the Arab countries has shown that the Arab region presents a significant variation in energy consumption levels between its sub-regions and countries. Indeed, the Arab region includes oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia with the largest energy use per capita in the World with over 9000 kWh/person of electricity used annually in buildings. However, the same region has the least developed countries such as Sudan and Yemen with the lowest energy use per capita in the World with barely 100 kWh/person/year of electrical consumption. The review of the existing regulations has indicated that several Arab countries have not implemented any energy efficiency codes and standards for building envelope, lighting, heating and cooling equipment, and appliances. A cost-effectiveness analysis has indicated that the Arab region can incur significant benefits in upgrading the energy efficiency of its new and existing buildings especially its households. Specifically, the adoption and the enforcement of stringent energy efficiency codes for new residential and commercial buildings can result in a reduction of 12.7 TWh/year in final annual energy consumption for the Arab region. Moreover, retrofit programs targeting existing buildings can save up to 470 TWh or a third of the building sector final energy consumption per year after 2030. Combining comprehensive energy efficiency requirements for new buildings and extensive retrofit programs for existing buildings would reduce the total final energy consumption of the building sector in the Arab region by 600 TWh by 2030 and by 900 TWh by 2050 if all the energy programs start to be implemented by 2020.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/22/4279arab regionbuilding sectorenergy efficiencyenergy productivitygccmaghrebmashreq
spellingShingle Moncef Krarti
Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Potential for the Building Sector in the Arab Region
Energies
arab region
building sector
energy efficiency
energy productivity
gcc
maghreb
mashreq
title Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Potential for the Building Sector in the Arab Region
title_full Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Potential for the Building Sector in the Arab Region
title_fullStr Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Potential for the Building Sector in the Arab Region
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Potential for the Building Sector in the Arab Region
title_short Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Potential for the Building Sector in the Arab Region
title_sort evaluation of energy efficiency potential for the building sector in the arab region
topic arab region
building sector
energy efficiency
energy productivity
gcc
maghreb
mashreq
url https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/22/4279
work_keys_str_mv AT moncefkrarti evaluationofenergyefficiencypotentialforthebuildingsectorinthearabregion