Energy efficiency |
India's building sector is growing at a rapid pace and after the industrial and agricultural sectors; it is the third largest consumer of energy in the country. National estimates show that the building energy use in India is increasing by over 9% annually, whic h greatly surpasses the national energy growth rate of 4.3%. It is projected that the commercial building sector alone will grow at 7% annually up to the year 2030 in India. Currently, India has only 200 million square meters of installed base, but, by 2030, it is expected that 8,690 million square meters of additional commercial space will be constructed. This trend has already begun to strain the power sector with energy shortages of over 11.3% in peak demand and a 7% supply deficit leading to power cuts and rolling blackouts that are endemic to most cities and towns of the country.
Buildings are typically designed to last 50-100 years, so their energy performance can have long-lasting effects. An improved energy efficiency scenario translates into reduced operating costs for each building since an energy efficient system con sumes less electricity for every function than its energy inefficient counterpart. It can be assessed that the energy cost ranges between 10-15% of operating income in a typical commercial building. Further, energy consumption studies conducted in several office buildings, hotels and hospitals indicate an energy savings potential of 20-50% in end-uses such as lighting, ventilation and cooling, building services operation, etc. This represents a vast, still untapped, saving potential which can mainly be attributed to a lack of an effective delivery mechanism for energy efficiency. Such a mechanism would result in tangible financial benefits for the individual as well as the nation. The trends for the country's building industry and urban growth would not only mean burdening our already strained energy infrastructure, but would also increase environmental degradation, greenhouse gasses, and overall ecological footprints of our towns and cities.
Computer simulation exercises indicate that ECBC-compliant/LEED/TERI GRIHA rated buildings use 30- 60% less energy than similar baseline buildings. Despite the clear saving this represents, the mainstream building and construction industry has still not embraced these guidelines. This is primarily due to the fact that builders are responsible for the up-front building construction costs alone while the building owners must be responsible for the energy usage bills of these buildings. The clients find it difficult to easily estimate the saving potential from investing in energy efficient construction technologies.
GreenTree's unique integration of energy efficiency in regular building design approach can help the Architectural firm/building owners/ and facility managers aim to not only reduce operating costs, but also contribute towards increasing the reliability and availability of electricity, improve building occupant comfort, reduce environment degradation and help the fight against global warming by lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Our team also tries its utmost to minimize the extra investment that designing energy efficient building requires so that the client gets an energy efficient, green building at almost zero additional cost. |
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