Green Buildings

December 18, 2020
Surface synergies and conflicts in smart cities

Surface area is an important but limited resource in cities that aim to become climate neutral. It can be used to, for example, generate heat or electricity via active solar systems, improve air quality via greening, or provide cooling thanks to highly reflective and emissive materials....
December 5, 2020
Financial and environmental benefits of solar heat pumps

As a source of energy for brine heat pumps, a PV-thermal collector field is well suited to reducing power demand in existing and to-be-renovated single-family homes, researchers at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, also known as ZHAW, have found. They compared combinations of PVT...
October 28, 2020
EU to have 35 million building units renovated by 2030

This October saw the unfolding of two landmark events that will have a major impact on renewable energy markets for decades to come. On 14 October, the Renovation Wave communication was published, its aim being to “at least double the annual energy renovation rate of residential and non-...
October 23, 2020
“Use mandates to boost established markets, but not to build up new ones”

Ten years after Hawaii’s Solar Hot Water Mandate was issued the Hawaii Solar Energy Association won a lawsuit to weed out a fatal flaw of the regulation that required all new single-family homes to install a solar water heater since 2010 unless one of four variances can be met. The flaw was...
October 18, 2020
Solar-heated multi-family buildings gain popularity in Germany

Many new largely solar-heated houses in Germany are multi-family buildings, and their number is growing, according to Sonnenhaus-Institut (Solar House Institute), an alliance of about 300 architects, planners, building companies and system integrators that specialise in the design or...
$Solar houses: above 95 % solar fraction is possible$

October 7, 2020
Solar houses: above 95 % solar fraction is possible

Between 2014 and 2019, the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund supported the construction of over 100 solar-heated houses, 19 of which were monitored following completion. Regardless of whether it was a lightweight or a brick house that was put up, the rooftop or facade collector system...
August 13, 2020
Grants for 600,000 renewable heating systems in England

In early August, the UK government announced a GBP 2 billion (USD 2.61 billion) Green Homes Grant scheme that will fund up to two-thirds of the cost of home improvements, including solar thermal systems, heat pumps and insulation, for over 600,000 residential buildings. From the end of...
June 18, 2020
Optimising life-cycle costs in the construction industry

A facade to capture solar energy is a particularly appealing option if a solar thermal system is to be integrated into an office or a multi-family building, as the available roof area is often relatively small compared to how much floor space needs to be heated or cooled. An international...
April 29, 2020
Hybrid solutions maximise solar yield per area

A record 840 people registered for the PVT solutions for buildings and industry webinar in order to learn more about the wide range of applications in which hybrid PV-Thermal systems can be used. This two-in-one technology offers attractive payback periods whenever a constant amount of heat...
February 14, 2020
Solar Energy Buildings to make cities fit for the future

Buildings account for around 40 % of the world’s primary energy consumption. Hence, they are the number one cause of resource consumption on earth. Because not every urban neighbourhood all over the world can be connected to district heating, local governments and building owners may need...
February 4, 2020
Role of life-cycle costs in NZEB projects

How much does it cost to construct, run and maintain a Nearly Zero Energy Building? What energy efficiency and renewable options could work best for a given project? Answering these and other questions is the aim of ...
November 27, 2019
Touring exhibition shows retrofits in 11 historic buildings

In October, Vienna became the first venue for the new touring exhibition Historic Buildings Energy Retrofit Atlas. At the European Congress on the Use, Management and Conservation of Buildings of Historical Value held in Austria’s capital, 12 roll-up banners showed the positive impact that...