Posted by Michael Mendolia
The building sector in France, which represents nearly 46% of total domestic energy consumption, is facing increased pressure to improve energy efficiency. Through the Grenelle Law, passed in June 2009, France set ambitious targets for energy efficiency in buildings, including a 38% reduction in energy consumption and a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the building sector by 2020.
Starting in 2013, energy-saving renovations will be performed on 400,000 existing housing units per year. However, the primary driver in reaching these aggressive targets involves progressively more stringent regulations on new buildings. For example, according to RT2012 thermal regulations, which take effect on January 1, 2013, all new residential buildings must consume less than 50 kWh/m2 per year, compared with the 2005 standard of 150 kWh/m2 per year. The RT2012 regulation also defines requirements for buildings’ air tightness and window area. For example, for new houses, the ratio between window surfaces and wall surfaces must exceed 17%, so that adequate natural lighting will reduce the need for electrical lighting. To meet the RT2012 standard, the adoption of solar water heating, photovoltaic panels, and combined heat and power (CHP) boilers is expected to increase in France.
In 2020, the requirements will become even stricter and all newly built houses in France will be required to be “positive energy”, meaning that they will produce more energy than they use. Such positive energy houses will use heat pump systems or solar thermal electricity to produce their heat and will obtain their electricity from renewable energy sources, including solar and wind. In consequence, these houses will consume only minor amounts of fossil fuels- if any at all! Achieving positive energy houses involves numerous challenges: on the production side, the building must be able to generate sufficient electricity and/or heat from primarily renewable energy sources and potentially feed a small part back into the electrical grid. In addition, the building’s energy consumption must also be tightly regulated and minimized, through the use of energy-efficient appliances, water heaters, and lighting. Furthermore, the building itself must be well insulated thermally to avoid unnecessary losses.
These issues are subject for discussion at the conference on Intelligent Building Systems, held in Paris, September 26-27th.
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