Smart energy regions : cost and value

Abstract

Ever since the landmark Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, global awareness of sustainability has come a long way in terms of reduction of carbon emissions and increasing energy efficiency in the context of environmental issues. Moreover, in view of our limited land resource and the realisation of finite earth resources, there is currently an ever-growing thrust in favour of retrofitting and reusing existing buildings for re-use. Underpinning all this, perhaps stemmed from the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008, there has been an equally important financial sensitivity to the cost of a project. An investment in retrofitting a building may take various forms, including its façade restoration, indoor refurbishment for a designated re-use. These inherently bring with them an added value to the building in its new state, for the given capital cost. Equally in today’s energy-conscious, carbon-reduction era, such a retrofit would typically include upgrading the building fabric to improve the building’s energy efficiency, through passive design, complemented with RES, without compromising the general comfort and well-being of its occupants. Today the latter is considered to be higher on the owner’s agenda, given evidence that it increases productivity. This is perhaps one way of ‘doing more with less’ – a smarter way towards building design.