Boston, MA – Owing to the energy crisis, increased emissions and the depletion of fossil fuels, research and development in Net Zero Energy technologies and integrated processes attained greater and renewed interests among stakeholders, especially governments worldwide.
Net Zero Energy is the culmination of several decades of research, development and practice of building design, construction and materials technology. Net Zero Energy development goes beyond the boundaries of building design and construction, and utilizes scientific knowledge from other sciences such as physics for building-related thermodynamic processes (e.g., conduction, convection and radiation in building envelope; airflow prediction using Computational Fluid Dynamics, etc.), chemistry for building material compositions (e.g., polymer technologies used for roof coatings that turn black during winter months and white in summer months, etc.), and biology through bio-organism-based technologies (e.g., Living MachinesTM for waste water recovery onsite, etc.).
FOUR CRITICAL COMPONENTS TO REALIZING NET ZERO ENERGY
Inspite of recent developments in Net Zero Energy definitions, technologies and processes, there are four vital issues that are fundamental to realizing Net Zero Energy objectives.
- 1. The current definitions of Net Zero Energy describe the fundamentals, but do not provide ample information on the “Energy Threshold” — this ensures that buildings are optimized for reduced energy consumption before renewable systems are integrated for energy balance.
- 2. Achieving Net Zero Energy requires a renewed look at the design strategies for energy efficiency. Advanced building materials, technologies and tools available to designers provide the thrust crucial for such an objective. However, for the new building materials and technologies under development, it takes few years to penetrate owing to several factors.
- 3. The essential feature of a successful project design, construction and operation is the integrated approach, which is unquestionably required for Net Zero Energy buildings. However, this integrated approach is unique to Net Zero Energy buildings that include numerous verification processes within the larger framework. The scheme is to ensure all energy systems are designed, constructed and operated with Net Zero Energy objective at all times. This is enabled through an in-depth verification process that is linked to existing building design, construction and operation process.
- 4. Energy balance is the fundamental principle of Net Zero Energy buildings. Energy balance can only be realized through an effective verification process, especially to a greater factor during the design phase of a building which lays the foundation of how much energy can be consumed and generated, and provides opportunity to optimize both consumption and generation.
