Estimating a threshold price for CO2 emissions of buildings to improve their energy performance level: case study of a new Spanish home

Energy consumption in homes produces CO 2 . In many countries, building regulations are being set to enable energy efficiency performance levels to be issued. In Spain, there is a regulated procedure to certify the energy performance of buildings according to their CO 2 emissions. Consequently, some...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy efficiency 2015-04, Vol.8 (2), p.183-203
Main Authors: Ruá, María José, Guadalajara, Natividad
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Building construction
Buildings
Carbon dioxide emissions
Case studies
Climatic zones
Construction
Construction costs
Construction industry
Cost control
Economics and Management
Emissions
Energy
Energy consumption
Energy Efficiency
Energy Policy
Environment
Environmental Economics
Expected values
Green buildings
Maintenance costs
Original Article
Prices
Ratings & rankings
Regulation
Renewable and Green Energy
Simulation
Studies
Sustainable Development
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Summary:Energy consumption in homes produces CO 2 . In many countries, building regulations are being set to enable energy efficiency performance levels to be issued. In Spain, there is a regulated procedure to certify the energy performance of buildings according to their CO 2 emissions. Consequently, some software tools have been designed to simulate buildings and to obtain their energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. In this paper, investment, maintenance and energy consumption costs are calculated for different energy performance levels and for various climatic zones in a single-family home. According to the results, for buildings to be more energy-efficient, higher construction and maintenance costs are implied, which are not compensated by lower energy costs. Therefore, under current conditions, economic criteria do not support the improvement of a dwelling’s energy efficiency. Among the possible measures to promote energy efficiency, a price for CO 2 emissions is suggested, including the social cost in the analysis. For this purpose, the cost-optimal methodology is used. In different scenarios for the discount rate and energy prices, various prices for CO 2 are obtained, depending on climatic zone and energy performance level.
ISSN:1570-646X
1570-6478
DOI:10.1007/s12053-014-9286-2