Use of Renewable Energies for the Creation of Net Zero Carbon Emission Residential Buildings in Northern Greece

Abstract

The necessity to cope with the global threats of climate change has increased our concern on the energy sources used increasing the share of renewable energies and shifting from fossil fuels to benign energy sources. European Union through various directives aims at increasing sustainability in buildings reducing their energy consumption, fossil fuels use and carbon emissions. In this context, the use of renewable energies covering all the energy needs and zeroing the carbon footprint in a residential building located in northern Greece has been investigated. Use of locally available sustainable energies including solar energy, solid biomass and waste heat rejected from power plants has been proposed for covering all the energy needs in a house. Their technologies for heat and power generation are mature, reliable and cost effective. Results have indicated that the combined use of the abovementioned sustainable energies can cover all the energy needs in the building, zeroing its carbon emissions due to operating energy use. The investment cost for a house at 150 m 2 varies between 6200 € to 10,700 € or 41.33 to 71.33 € per m 2 of the building covered surface, which is relatively low compared with its construction cost. Therefore, the creation of zero CO 2 emissions residential buildings due to energy use in northern Greece is technically and economically feasible.