Impact on Renewable Design Requirements of Net-Zero Carbon Buildings under Potential Future Climate Scenarios
This paper presents an analysis to foresee renewable design requirement changes of net- zero carbon buildings (NZCBs) under different scenarios of potential future climate scenarios in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest regions. A climate change model is developed in this study using the Gaussian random...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021-01-01
|
| Series: | Climate |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/9/1/17 |
| _version_ | 1797409769406857216 |
|---|---|
| author | Dongsu Kim Heejin Cho Pedro J. Mago Jongho Yoon Hyomun Lee |
| author_facet | Dongsu Kim Heejin Cho Pedro J. Mago Jongho Yoon Hyomun Lee |
| author_sort | Dongsu Kim |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper presents an analysis to foresee renewable design requirement changes of net- zero carbon buildings (NZCBs) under different scenarios of potential future climate scenarios in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest regions. A climate change model is developed in this study using the Gaussian random distribution method with monthly temperature changes over the whole Northeast and Midwest regions, which are predicted based on a high greenhouse gas (GHG) emission scenario (i.e., the representative concentration pathways (RCP) 8.5). To reflect the adoption of NZCBs potential in future, this study also considers two representative future climate scenarios in the 2050s and 2080s of climate change years in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest regions. An office prototype building model integrates with an on-site photovoltaics (PV) power generation system to evaluate NZCB performance under the climate change scenarios with an assumption of a net-metering electricity purchase agreement. Appropriate capacities of the on-site PV system needed to reach NZCB balances are determined based on the building energy consumption impacted by the simulated climate scenarios. Results from this study demonstrated the emission by electricity consumption increases as moving toward the future scenarios of up to about 25 tons of CO<sub>2</sub>-eq (i.e., about 14% of the total CO<sub>2</sub>-eq produced by the electricity energy source) and the PV installation capacity to offset the emission account for the electricity consumption increases significantly up to about 40 kWp (i.e., up to more than 10% of total PV installation capacities) as the different climate scenarios are applied. It is concluded that the cooling energy consumption of office building models would significantly impact GHG emission as future climate scenarios are considered. Consequently, designers of NZCBs should consider high performance cooling energy systems in their designs to reduce the renewable energy generation system capacity to achieve net-zero carbon emission goals. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T04:20:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cf3fb920241340ada7cbc2999103d7f1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2225-1154 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T04:20:25Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Climate |
| spelling | doaj.art-cf3fb920241340ada7cbc2999103d7f12023-12-03T13:49:01ZengMDPI AGClimate2225-11542021-01-01911710.3390/cli9010017Impact on Renewable Design Requirements of Net-Zero Carbon Buildings under Potential Future Climate ScenariosDongsu Kim0Heejin Cho1Pedro J. Mago2Jongho Yoon3Hyomun Lee4Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, KoreaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Mississippi State University, 210 Carpenter Engineering Building, P.O. Box 9552, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USADepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USADepartment of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, KoreaDepartment of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, KoreaThis paper presents an analysis to foresee renewable design requirement changes of net- zero carbon buildings (NZCBs) under different scenarios of potential future climate scenarios in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest regions. A climate change model is developed in this study using the Gaussian random distribution method with monthly temperature changes over the whole Northeast and Midwest regions, which are predicted based on a high greenhouse gas (GHG) emission scenario (i.e., the representative concentration pathways (RCP) 8.5). To reflect the adoption of NZCBs potential in future, this study also considers two representative future climate scenarios in the 2050s and 2080s of climate change years in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest regions. An office prototype building model integrates with an on-site photovoltaics (PV) power generation system to evaluate NZCB performance under the climate change scenarios with an assumption of a net-metering electricity purchase agreement. Appropriate capacities of the on-site PV system needed to reach NZCB balances are determined based on the building energy consumption impacted by the simulated climate scenarios. Results from this study demonstrated the emission by electricity consumption increases as moving toward the future scenarios of up to about 25 tons of CO<sub>2</sub>-eq (i.e., about 14% of the total CO<sub>2</sub>-eq produced by the electricity energy source) and the PV installation capacity to offset the emission account for the electricity consumption increases significantly up to about 40 kWp (i.e., up to more than 10% of total PV installation capacities) as the different climate scenarios are applied. It is concluded that the cooling energy consumption of office building models would significantly impact GHG emission as future climate scenarios are considered. Consequently, designers of NZCBs should consider high performance cooling energy systems in their designs to reduce the renewable energy generation system capacity to achieve net-zero carbon emission goals.https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/9/1/17net-zero carbon buildingclimate changeEnergyPlusbuilding energy modelingoffice buildingphotovoltaics (PV) |
| spellingShingle | Dongsu Kim Heejin Cho Pedro J. Mago Jongho Yoon Hyomun Lee Impact on Renewable Design Requirements of Net-Zero Carbon Buildings under Potential Future Climate Scenarios Climate net-zero carbon building climate change EnergyPlus building energy modeling office building photovoltaics (PV) |
| title | Impact on Renewable Design Requirements of Net-Zero Carbon Buildings under Potential Future Climate Scenarios |
| title_full | Impact on Renewable Design Requirements of Net-Zero Carbon Buildings under Potential Future Climate Scenarios |
| title_fullStr | Impact on Renewable Design Requirements of Net-Zero Carbon Buildings under Potential Future Climate Scenarios |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impact on Renewable Design Requirements of Net-Zero Carbon Buildings under Potential Future Climate Scenarios |
| title_short | Impact on Renewable Design Requirements of Net-Zero Carbon Buildings under Potential Future Climate Scenarios |
| title_sort | impact on renewable design requirements of net zero carbon buildings under potential future climate scenarios |
| topic | net-zero carbon building climate change EnergyPlus building energy modeling office building photovoltaics (PV) |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/9/1/17 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dongsukim impactonrenewabledesignrequirementsofnetzerocarbonbuildingsunderpotentialfutureclimatescenarios AT heejincho impactonrenewabledesignrequirementsofnetzerocarbonbuildingsunderpotentialfutureclimatescenarios AT pedrojmago impactonrenewabledesignrequirementsofnetzerocarbonbuildingsunderpotentialfutureclimatescenarios AT jonghoyoon impactonrenewabledesignrequirementsofnetzerocarbonbuildingsunderpotentialfutureclimatescenarios AT hyomunlee impactonrenewabledesignrequirementsofnetzerocarbonbuildingsunderpotentialfutureclimatescenarios |