Large buildings such as shopping malls, hotels, hospitals, and government offices in some areas already allow power companies to remotely manage their HVAC systems to manage extreme power consumption. Raising the temperature in a supermarket by 1ºC during the summer can save thousands of kWh of electricity.
Building construction and operations accounted for the largest share of global final energy use (36%) and energy-related CO2 emissions (39%) in 2018.
Lighting, refrigeration, ventilation, and cooling use 64% of the total energy used by commercial buildings. In homes, more than 50% of the total energy used is for space heating and air conditioning.
This autumn, Europe will be facing an unprecedented energy crisis. The war in Ukraine and the dependency on Russia for gas are forcing European member states, such as Germany and France, to impose severe energy-use restrictions.
In fact, the European Union is asking all member states to share the burden. Spain, which doesn’t depend on Russian gas for heating or electricity production, has enacted new legislation mandating businesses and public facilities to keep air conditioning not below 27º C (81º F) and heating not above 17º C (63º F). Some industries, such as supermarkets, restaurants, and other food-related businesses, are exempt from this.
Solar Panels and Battery Storage Provide Energy Independence
The cost of photovoltaic solar panels has dropped dramatically over the last 40 years. In 1977, solar panels cost $77 per watt. In just 45 years, the price of solar panels has dropped by 99.3% to an average of $0.60 today. Furthermore, the density of electricity production in solar panels is much higher, allowing to capture more power per square meter.
A combination of photovoltaic surfaces, panels or smart windows, and on-site battery storage can help buildings achieve energy efficiency and some energy independence.
New buildings are especially suitable for taking advantage of these technologies. Designing photovoltaic surfaces and roof solar panels could provide a large part of the electricity needs. Depending on location, season, and amount of photovoltaic energy produced, surplus power can be stored in on-site batteries, commonly located in the basement, for use when solar power is unavailable, on nights, and cloudy days.
Utility-Based Power Management and Grid Balancing
Different seasons mean different power usage in most regions. In places where there is little use for heating during the winter, there is a massive demand for power in the summer for air conditioning. Additionally, heat waves and other unusual weather events are increasingly common worldwide. Cities such as London are experiencing temperatures over 40º C (104º F), something unimaginable just 10 years ago. Such events happen in areas where the power grids are unprepared for the unprecedented rise in electricity demand.
Nowadays it is typical for utility companies to request businesses to help them address the problems of uneven power usage during the day and in different seasons.
Power companies have been teaming up with industries and commercial building owners to help balance the electricity consumption. In areas with uneven power usage during different hours or seasons of the year, power companies offer special deals to businesses such as factories, hotels, and office buildings to help them manage some of their power-hungry systems, mostly climate-control devices. Hotels and big retailers allow the utilities to directly manage their HVACs to adjust temperatures according to the overall power usage. A slight increase of 1º C in a large hotel, for example, barely noticed by guests, converts into megawatts of power savings.
Furthermore, in cases where the buildings have power-generating systems and storage, such as photovoltaic panels and battery storage, the surplus electricity generated or accumulated could help balance the local grid, especially during high power usage due to extreme weather.
EV Charging at Parking Can Keep Lights On
By 2030, between 250 million and 320 million electric cars (including plug-in hybrids) and more than 2 million electric buses will cruise the roads worldwide. Five times more electric car models were available globally in 2021 than in 2015, and the number of available models reached 450 by the end of 2021.
In many cities worldwide, buildings are required to install electric-vehicle charging stations in their garages. As the number of electric cars increases, so does the possibility of using them to balance renewable-energy generation and provide off-grid storage.
And that’s not all. Using vehicle-to-grid technologies (V2G), several electric vehicles can provide cheap storage and keep some of the building’s critical systems working in case of power failure.
To accomplish that, EV charging stations in smart buildings require bi-directional charging stations, ideally fitted with DC-power connectors such as CHAdeMO. When a power failure occurs, the system allows the electricity stored in the EV batteries to be transferred back to the building infrastructure in real-time. This solution could help avoid using polluting diesel generators.
The Transition to Green Power Requires the Collaboration of Stakeholders
Building design and construction have great potential to help minimize energy consumption and, therefore, the current energy crisis. While we already have the technologies necessary to implement these solutions, the building industry must collaborate with different stakeholders.
Without common standards and the interoperability of different systems, it would not be easy to effectively connect all the necessary pieces and take advantage of the technologies we already have.
Today, many buildings already have solar panels, intelligent HVACs, and some form of power storage. Also, EV charging stations are present in many garages and other indoor facilities. The different industries need to find a way to connect all those elements and facilitate the management of power distribution and consumption.
Most analysts agree that power consumption and cost are not going down for the foreseeable future. And buildings and cities are the biggest consumers of electricity. The power produced and not used does not benefit anyone. All the stakeholders must collaborate to raise the sustainability of the entire ecosystem.
