Near Zero Energy Buildings and Communities (Towards Energy Transition in the Built Environment)

Panel Organization
Organizer and Moderator:
Dr.ir. S. Mohammadi
Department of Architectural Engineering + Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
List of Panelists:
Prof. ir. P.G. Luscuere
Department of Architectural Engineering + Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
Dr. Salah Vaisi
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
Ir. J. Slobbe
Witteveen+Bos, Koningin Julianaplein 10, The Hague, The Netherlands
Keywords
Energy Transition / Nearly Zero Energy Building & Communities (NZEB&C) / Collective Energy Systems / Smart Thermal Grids vs Smart Grids/ Zero Carbon Communities / Buildings Energy Renovation
Abstract
Climate change and global warming as an anthropological phenomenon, which is significantly a result of fossil fuel consumption in the building environment, needs to be addressed urgently. In this regard, ‘Nearly Zero Energy Building and Communities (NZEB&C) has been introduced in order to establish a bilateral solution including building energy efficiency and renewable energy resources application at both building and neighbourhood levels simultaneously.
Both the energy performance of the existing building and their energy systems should be improved to be more efficient and the demand on the built environment needs to be fully supplied by the local renewable resources by 2050. NZEB means the annual energy usage of a building is equal to the annual on-site energy generation while the consumption is at the lowest level. Addressing the energy systems integration, energy network efficiency, and application of renewable resources at the community level is more efficient and cost effective in the long term compared with the individual building measures.
In the proposed panel, the importance of NZEB&C will be addressed. During this session NZEB, where sustainable building level measures are combined with local renewable potentials (NZEC) to balance the energy demand/supply and create an optimum link between a buildings and communities from smart energy management perspective will be discussed in detail. Smart thermal grids (STGs) are able to perform the same function as Smart Grids (SGs), but are introduced in order to allow the integration of the decentralized heating and cooling sources and to provide the required energy when needed through efficient resource utilization and intelligent management. In this panel the integration and interfacing of the two important concepts (STGs-SGs) will also be addressed. In this connection the result of the two recent completed European projects, Smart Urban Isle[i] and KoWaNet[ii] will be presented to demonstrate the synergies of these two concepts.
In short, the main directions of the panel can be summarized as follows:

Energy transition in the built environment
Nearly zero energy building and communities
Collective energy systems and solutions
Smart Thermal Grids and distributed generations
Sustainable building energy renovations
Zero carbon buildings and communities

Panel Format
The format of the presentations and follow-up Q&As is as follows:

Brief introduction of the panel, panelists and discussion guidelines
Presentations and follow-up Q&A
Wrap-up and discussion

The panel in total takes 90 minutes.

Short biography of panelists
*Peter Luscuere* is Professor at Delft University of Technology and visiting Professor to Tianjin University in China. The research of the Building Physics & Services group he is heading is focused on: Energy transition, Exergy, Comfort, Building Physical properties of materials and Sustainability. As director at Royal Haskoning he was responsible for the company’s work in Health Care as well as developing a companywide Cradle to Cradle inspired program on sustainability. In 2010, he established an independent consulting business Inspired Ambitions, while continuing his academic work. He developed a holistic approach ‘Beyond Sustainability’ in which renewability for all basic natural resources: Energy, Water, Air, Top Soil and Materials is investigated and confronted with consequences on: Ecology, Economy and Equity. During 2016 he has been chairing the Transition Pathway Circular Economy within the Roadmap Next Economy, a project with Jeremy Rifkin for the Metropolitan Region Rotterdam The Hague.
*Saleh Mohammadi* is currently employed as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at TU Delft Faculty of Architecture, where he is working on designing integrated energy systems for the built environment at different scales with a high renewable share. He is also working at Witteveen+Bos engineering and consultancy firm as a senior renewable energy consultant based in The Hague, Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. from Eindhoven University of Technology in 2016 in ”Smart Energy Systems”.
*Salah Vaisi*, PhD. in Thermal Energy Modelling, Benchmarking, and Mapping at Community Scale, graduated from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, in 2017. He already is one of the faculty members at the Department of Architecture at University of Kurdistan. His Research interests are sustainable architecture, sustainable and environmental friendly urban design, energy modelling, visualising, benchmarking and rating in buildings, ecological building and urban design. He published many papers in conferences and indexed journals in the field of architecture, sustainable development and energy efficiency. His membership in important scientific societies includes, (1) Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), UK (2) DIT Dublin Energy Lab.
*Johan Slobbe* leads the group Energy Strategy at engineering consultancy Witteveen+Bos. He focusses on the energy transition of the built environment in the Netherlands from mainly natural gas towards carbon free alternatives. He will explain the challenges in the Dutch context and some key methods to achieve the 2050 climate goals.

[i] http://smarturbanisle.eu
[ii] https://www.kowanet.nl