The Role of Buildings in Energy Systems

Abstract

The construction sector consumes significant amounts of natural resources (raw materials, water, energy ) during the various phases of its activity that covers construction, operation, and demolition of structures. A large amount of energy is required for the operation of buildings during their overall lives in order to meet their habitats needs—about 40 % of the final energy consumption in the EU in 2012. The EU has set a target for all new buildings to be “nearly zero-energy ” by 2020. Considering that construction of new buildings has declined over the last few years and that there is a large stock of old buildings that were constructed without any thermal or energy regulations in several European countries, energy renovation in existing buildings has a high potential for energy efficiency . As environmental issues become increasingly significant, buildings become more energy efficient and the energy needs during their operation decreases, aimed at “nearly zero energy ” buildings. Thus, the energy required for construction and, consequently, for the material production, is becoming more and more important. A significant contribution in the efforts to reduce the environmental impacts from construction activities is evaluating their environmental consequences in each stage of their life-cycle. This has led to the development of different “environmental life-cycle” assessment approaches.