Indian buildings are silent energy guzzlers. They account for 35% of India’s overall power consumption and generate a significant amount of greenhouse gases. Because of ever-increasing population and urbanisation, the construction (and energy consumption) of buildings has seen a rampant rise. The next decade is expected to witness massive volumes of building construction, which will further escalate energy consumption.
While there is a strong policy-push towards the adoption of renewable energy technologies such as rooftop solar photovoltaics (RTPV), the potential for making zero energy buildings has not been explored extensively - even though experiments across the world (and India) have shown the possibility.
Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) - 100% energy-efficient, sustainable buildings - can be a game changer, not only for India’s building sector, but also for the energy sector. NZEBs have lower energy demand than that of conventional buildings and produce at least as much energy as they consume in a year, through onsite renewable energy technologies. NZEBs are commonly grid-connected to save battery costs. This allows them to draw electricity at night and during cloudy days, and return an equivalent amount of electricity to the local grid on sunny days. Thus, it nullifies the net carbon emissions from buildings.
In the Indian context, proactive government initiatives encourage decentralised solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies, such as RTPV and (to an extent) integrated solar photovoltaics (BIPVs). However, this has not evolved into an integrated policy that looks at achieving zero energy consumption from buildings.
Such green buildings can significantly support India’s Nationally Determined Contribution target to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 33–35% (from the 2005 levels) by 2030. Beyond this, NZEBs can emerge as a beacon for scaling up decentralised solar photovoltaic generation and support the efforts of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) as well. NZEBs can help mitigate the consequences of climate change by bringing a revolution to both the construction and especially the energy sector.
How to transform the energy and building landscape?
In view of the aforementioned barriers and the tremendous potential of NZEBs, there is an urgent need for a common platform, representing different stakeholders having adequate knowledge and expertise. The platform could include the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, MNRE, Ministry of Urban Development, town planning departments, building planners/consultants, construction material manufacturers, research and academic organisations, and municipal corporations. We suggest that an academic-industrial-government consortium be created to develop and promote a well-defined NZEB roadmap for large-scale development.
The goal of this consortium should be to set a small target for adopting NZEBs in India, by 2030, for trial. This will allow the consortium and other experts to evaluate the actual performance of NZEBs, and resolve problems that may arise. Thus, the consortium will be able to develop a specific design strategy to integrate energy-efficient and renewable technologies, especially BIPV and RTPV. Eventually, the consortium should also be responsible for obtaining financial support from different national and international funding agencies.
Similar consortia should be recognised at the central level as well as the state level. The central consortium will have to shelter all state-level consortia, and provide guidance and support. These collaborations will contribute significantly towards achieving the existing and future solar targets, set by MNRE. In this regard, NZEB pilot projects, for residential and commercial segments, should be demonstrated and monitored by all state-level consortia. After experimentation in the states, pilot NZEBs should be launched in all cities across the nation.
Meanwhile, long-term electricity savings, cost savings, and environmental benefits of NZEBs should be acknowledged and shared with the public for bringing about increased awareness through channels such as traditional and social media. A large number of engineers and technicians should be trained to design and develop cost-effective NZEBs.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) of each state can formulate attractive feed-in-tariff rates/incentives for selling the surplus power to the local utility grid. In the meantime, the above-mentioned departments associated with the building sector should also plan and develop net zero energy cities by making NZEBs feasible and scalable, with similar designs for each and every building.
It can be argued that conducting such pilot projects in the Indian context will help decarbonise the building sector and ensure a complete makeover of the sector in the long run. Such efforts have the potential to not only meet the solar targets but also cross the targets in a sustainable and safe manner. They will also pave the way for creating a regulatory framework for NZEBs. We can thus achieve the dream of completely offsetting the adverse climatic impact of buildings just by deploying sustainable techniques and by harnessing the Sun, someday.
