Review on the European Strategies for Energy-Efficient Buildings
Reduction of the energy consumption in the building stock is an essential part of the sustainability strategies of the European Union on economy, environment and Climate Change. Operation and use of the residential and tertiary sector buildings are responsible for roughly 40% of the total final energy consumed in its Member States. This demand is supplied mainly from the imported fossil fuels. Energy-efficiency of buildings has grown to one of the main mechanisms in pursuits to alter the negative trends of growing consumption that would lead to an increase of the import dependence and increase of greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, the European policy has shown signs of success but the targets seem to have been set as too ambitious. A review on the energy-efficiency strategies is presented in this paper in order to propose an explanation for the delay. It has been identified as insufficient links between statistics on the energy supply and the energy demand in various parts of the existing building...
Building Energy Consumption in US, EU, and BRIC Countries☆
Abstract This paper presents and discusses data taken from several studies about the building energy consumption in US, EU, and BRIC (Brazil, Russia. India, China) countries. Most of the current researches about energy consumptions deals with statistics in a specific country. However, international comparisons are useful to discover historical, actual, and energy consumption trends. Data presented in reports of the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Program, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,and the International Energy Agency are compared with national reports as well as with research studies. This analysis shows that the BRIC countries have already overcome the total energy consumption of developed countries, and the expansion of their building stock raises an imperative urgency for energy efficiency in buildings. At the same time, this paper shows that the measures actually adopted in developed countries are insufficient to guarantee a significant reduction in their energy consumption inbuildings.
End-to-end integrated power-outage/restoration sensing module
In developing countries, Low Tension (LT) power distribution systems remain essentially open-ended. Hence Utility interventions are primarily reactive, thus leaving millions of customers with little or no options. In order to bring about a transformation, it is essential that the Utility captures “information” and initiates “control” proactively, without being dependent on customer-triggered information following power outages. Therefore, to make the grid “smarter”, without deploying Remote Terminal Units (RTUs)/Field Remote Terminal Units (FRTUs) or smart meters, an outage management module has been conceived, designed and developed, which senses electricity supply outages at strategic “nodes” of the LT distribution network. It relays the information back to the Utility command centre within seconds of occurrence for the Utility to take necessary corrective/preventive measures. Not only does the module match the technical requisites, but also, is economic enough to meet the shoe-string budgets of the ailing utilities.