Likelihood of Reaching Zero Energy Building Design in Hot Dry Climate: Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Energy consumption in the building sector accounts for a large percentage of global energy consumption. For this reason, it is essential to take action to minimize this destructive consumption and promote energy conservation practices within the building sector. A Zero Energy Building (ZEB) concept has been proven as a viable technique for improving energy efficiency in various climatic conditions. This concept can minimize the environmental impact of buildings and helping to advance sustainable development in the construction industry. Worldwide, the ZEB is of the utmost importance to meet sustainability development goals in the built environment. The building sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) consumes about 75% of total electrical energy. KSA has experienced an unprecedented energy consumption in the last decade. This is due to the country's rapid population growth and urbanization, which in turn put more pressures on the kingdom's natural resources. However, KSA is committed to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies to achieve the goals of sustainability development, as part of its Vision 2030. This paper therefore explores various green building solutions, especially in hot-arid regions, with the aim of reaching ZEB, and at the same time minimizing potential adverse environmental impacts. In order to verify proposed solutions, energy simulation software (Integrated Environmental Solution-IES) is used, along with reviews of related work. The major finding of this paper reveals that several green building concepts are crucial to the design and operation of a building in hot dry region, including thermal mass; daylight; natural ventilation; cavity wall; double-glazing and solar panels (PV). Bear in mind that the operation of a building has to be powered by a Building Management System (BMS). This paper also proposes an auxiliary holistic framework that explains how green practices such as Zero Energy Buildings (ZEBs) can be achievable in Saudi Arabia with no harm to its local environment.INDEX TERMS zero energy building; sustainable development; climatic conditions; simulation

The Potential of Green Engineering Solutions for Energy Conservation in Residential Buildings Towards Sustainability: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia

“…Developers around the world are implementing various forms of sustainable residential buildings, including Plus-Energy Homes, Low-Energy and Zero-Energy buildings (ZEBs), and passive houses [8,9]. These forms of sustainable development have all been based on simulations of energy performance in an individual building, while the majority of extant studies on sustainable building development have largely focused on either single existing building structures or a subset of building components [10]. Other studies Therefore, energy efficiency improvements in buildings should be taken into consideration to reduce the energy demand of this project, which would have a significant impact on reducing global GHG emissions.…”