Deploying renewable energy technology in sustainable buildings: a case study of the Living Wall

Abstract

NarrativA ArchitecteN’s proposed Living Wall plans to bridge the gap between new sustainable buildings and functional urban integration by offering a 2-km long passive building situated south of Utrecht. The purpose of the Living Wall is to shield and protect the neighborhood of Lunetten from adjacent highway noise and pollution while offering sustainable living accommodation for (ex-) students and young professionals. This work investigates concepts for passive and efficient building envelope construction as well as the economic (techno-economic potential) and market (business model analysis) viability of deploying envelope and supply technologies as part of the Living Walls energy systems. Systems investigated are types of insulation, advanced windows, bio-fueled boiler, CHPs, Heat pumps, photovoltaic, and active solar thermal arrays. Results indicate a wide variety of building envelope components are economically viable and that optimizing energy life-cycle alone is not enough criteria to determine the most applicable building envelope or supply technology. Market deployment of economically viable building envelope and supply technologies can be best achieved through the utilization of a ESCO business model.