TITLE:
Use of Renewable Energies for the Creation of Net Zero Carbon Emission Residential Buildings in Northern Greece
AUTHORS:
John Vourdoubas
KEYWORDS:
Carbon Emissions, Electricity, Greece, Renewable Energy, Residential Buildings
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Energy Efficiency,
Vol.7 No.3,
September
28,
2018
ABSTRACT: The
necessity to cope with the global threats of climate change has increased our
concern on the energy sources used increasing the share of renewable energies
and shifting from fossil fuels to benign energy sources. European Union through
various directives aims at increasing sustainability in buildings reducing
their energy consumption, fossil fuels use and carbon emissions. In this
context, the
use of renewable energies covering all the energy needs and zeroing the carbon
footprint in a residential building located in northern Greece has been
investigated. Use of locally available sustainable energies including solar
energy, solid biomass and waste heat rejected from power plants has been
proposed for covering all the energy needs in a house. Their technologies for
heat and power generation are mature, reliable and cost effective. Results have
indicated that the combined use of the abovementioned sustainable energies can
cover all the energy needs in the building, zeroing its carbon emissions due to operating
energy use. The investment cost for a house at 150 m2 varies between
6200 € to 10,700 € or 41.33 to 71.33 € per m2 of the building covered
surface, which is relatively low compared with its construction cost. Therefore, the creation of zero CO2 emissions
residential buildings due to energy use in northern Greece is technically and
economically feasible.