ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF A UNIVERSIT Y CAMPUS IN NORWAY SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES AND DESIGN SOLUTIONS TO REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTIONS Martina Bianchi Master Thesis in Building Università degli Studi di Genova Engineering and Architecture NTNU, Trondheim - ZEN Reaseach Centre 2018/2019 “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” Stephen William Hawking ABSTRACT Today more then ever cities have a fundamental role not only from the design point of view but also from the social and economic one. In a century in which “urbani- zation” has a leading part, it is becoming more and more crucial to start toward a sustainable approach. Cities have to guarantee not only the quality of life for the inhabitants but also a low environmental impact which does not affect the needs of the future generations. For this purpose, lot of cities in the world are reorganizing and rethinking them- selves with the aim of becoming more smart and adapting to changes that could not be reversible. In an historical period in which buildings sector produces the main part of the glob- al emissions and uses about the 40% of the energy source, the attention to the energy behaviour of the construction has assumed an essential importance. For existing buildings the energy simulation has two different advantages: to eval- uate the current energy status and their improvement as a result of eventual inter- ventions. Energy simulation has increasingly taken on a dynamic characteristic and today is a valid tool to implement the existing built. Recently developed tools give the opportunity to estimate the energy behaviour of entire neighbourhoods and cities, giving the chance to evaluate the situation from a global and completely new point of view. The totalitarian approach and not fo- cused on the single building, could be revolutionary and decisive for many cities that are not able to guarantee and pursue the goals regarding the sustainability. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations and glossary 1 List of figures 2 List of tables 9 Introduction 10 Chapter 1 – Focus on sustainability 12 • Concept of Sustainability and background 14 • Sustainability and buildings 17 Chapter 2 – ZEN Research Centre 22 • The Research Centre on Zero Emission Neighbourhoods 24 in Smart Cities – FME, ZEN Definition of ZEN Research Centre 24 Goals of ZEN Research Centre 24 Numbers of ZEN Research Centre 24 Partners of ZEN Research Centre 25 Pilot project of ZEN Research Centre 25 Organisation of ZEN Research Centre 26 Background of ZEN Research Centre 28 ZEB and nZEB 29 From ZEB to ZEN 29 Zero Emission Neighbourhoods: definition and approach 31 • Norway 33 Trondheim 33 Climate 34 NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology 35 Strategic research areas 36 Campuses in Trondheim 36 Students at NTNU 37 Students’ life 37 Gløshaugen campus 39 location and accessibility 39 Facilities 40 Boundaries and buildings’ use 41 Elevation of the terrain 42 Historical background 42 Gløshaugen campus’ renovation project 43 Chapter 3 – Background and definition 44 • Energy requirements for buildings 48 Past energy requirements 48 Current energy requirements 48 Future energy requirements 49 • LCA, LCEA, LCCA 50 Embodied, operational and demolition energy/emissions 51 • Low energy buildings 54 Passive techniques 54 Low embodied energy materials 54 The importance of systems and renewable energy 56 Chapter 4 – Energy modelling at urban scale 58 • Systems boundaries 60 • Assessment criteria and key performance indicators 61 • Categories 62 • Energy modelling and building simulation 68 Reference buildings 70 Chapter 5 – Tools for energy modelling at urban scale 72 • IESVE 74 • CityBES 75 • UMI 75 • CitySIM 77 • CEA 78 • Chapter 6 – Energy modelling with the software UMI 80 • Context analysis 82 Mapping 83 Blocking 84 Numbering 86 Grouping 87 • Input data collection 90 Climate data 90 Geometry data 90 Definition of reference buildings 91 Buildings’ properties 93 Energy consumptions 102 LCA data 103 • Model creation 104 3D model 104 Template creation 108 Template assignment 113 • Simulation 124 Energy 124 GHG emissions 126 • Output data examination 128 Output data exporting and reading 128 Output data validation 142 Chapter 7 – Solution scenarios proposal 146 • Critical buildings selection 150 • Solution approach 154 • Scenario A 155 Condensation check 157 Regulation limit verification 162 Total operational energy 163 Heating energy 166 Cooling energy 167 Embodied energy 179 Embodied carbon 180 • Scenario B 181 Condensation check 183 Regulation limit verification 186 Total operational energy 191 Heating energy 296 Cooling energy 205 Embodied energy 213 Embodied carbon 214 • Scenario A+B 215 Total operational energy 215 Heating energy 216 Cooling energy 221 Embodied energy 223 Embodied carbon 224 • Discussion of the results 225 Final considerations 236 Bibliography 237 Acknowledgment 240 NOMENCLATURE AND ABBREVIATION BEM Building energy modelling GHG Green house gases HVAC Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning KPIs Key performance indicators LCA, Life cycle assessment LCCA Life cycle carbon assessment LCEA Life cycle energy assessment MMTCDE Million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents PV Photovoltaic Panels R Thermal resistance RBs Reference buildings TEK17 Norwegian regulations on technical requirements for construc- tion works UBEM Urban building energy modelling UMI Urban modelling interface U-value Thermal transmittance WWR Window-to-wall ratio ZEB Zero emission/energy buildings ZEN Zero emission neighbourhood λ Thermal conductivity 1 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: the most important phases in the history of the sustainable develop- ment are presented in the graph [1]. Figure 2: the image shows the seventeen different goals for a sustainable devel- opment according to the United Nations. Figure 3: the world population will reach ten billions in the next thirty years [2]. Figure 4: the demand of floor area will remarkably increase in the next thirty years [3]. Figure 5: goals which a smart cities have to reach according to the European Unions [6]. Figure 6: the ZEN Centre’s partners, both the private sector, public sector and research and education one. Figure 7: map of the ZEN pilot projects. Figure 8: the ZEN Centre’s organizational structure. Figure 9: Work packages in the ZEN Research Centre. Figure 10: important definitions related to ZEB. Figure 11: different phases ot a building’s life that are included in the definitions levels. Figure 12: percentage of GHG emissions produced by sector; buildings are re- sponsible of the 39% of the total global emissions [13]. Figure 13: buildings considered as a whole neighbourhood can reach the balance that might not be attain from a single one. Figure 14: Peel M C, Finlayson B L and McMahon T A 2007 Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss. 4 439–73 Figure 15: location of the eleven campuses of NTNU in Trondheim. Figure 16: numbers related to students at NTNU. Figure 17: facilities for students on or near the campuses on Trondheim. Figure 18: travel time by transport type to reach the city centre from Gløshaugen Campus. Figure 19: facilities for students in Gløshaugen cam Figure 20: map of the different type of use of the buildings in the Campus. Figure 21: map of the elevation of the terrain in Gløshaugen campus Figure 22: the scheme show which percentage of the emissions related to the buildings is due to the operations part and which is correlated to the embodied carbon [19]. Figure 23: the scheme shows the factors which influence the energy consump- tion in a building; they are both technical and human. Figure 24: different phases of the LCA workflow are presented. LCE and LCCA represent two steps of the entire process. [23] Figure 25: the scheme shows the different energy and emissions provision that have to be considered during a Life Cycle Energy and a Life Cycle Carbon Emis- sions Assessment. 2 Figure 26: during the life-span of a building, three different kind of embodied emissions have to be considered: the initial ones, the operational emissions (com- prehended the emissions due to renovation) and the emissions resulting from the demolition of the building at the end of its life. [25] Figure 27: the graph underlines the embodied energy of some of the main build- ing materials during their life-span; concrete, plastic and steel have a high level of embodied energy, contrariwise natural material like timber, stone and copper have a lower impact. [26] Figure 28: the best combination regarding the systems on a building, is the result of the combination between high efficiency plants and the use of renewable source for the energy production. Figure 29: global population growth and cars production in the future [30]. Figure 30: global population growth and electricity demand in the future [31]. Figure 31: explication of the innovation category through its main pillars [32]. Figure 32: assessment criteria and KPIs for the ZEN Research Centre. Figure 33: the four standard different phases that have to be developed in order to do an energy simulation [33]. Figure 34: IESVE software’s available modules [35]. Figure 35: CityBES is made by three part: data, software and use case; all of them interact in order to visualize the final performances [36]. Figure 36: annual global buildings sector CO2 emission sectors: embodied car- bon is [21]. Figure 37: CitySIM has a three-based structure made of different modules: dis- trct, buildings and thermal zones. Figure 38: in the scheme, the workflow of CEA is showed [38]. Figure 39: in order to decide what tool was more suitable for the developing of the work about Gløshaugen Campus, a table with the pros and cons for each software have been done. Figure 40: phases that will be faced in order to develop the work with UMI. Figure 41: identification of the campus area that also correspond to the project area. Figure 42: the first scheme show how buildings with different geometry have to been split in simpler blocks; similarly, buildings in which there are different ther- mal zones, have been divided.