Project: Building Energy Efficiency

Project: Building Energy Efficiency

BACKGROUND

BUDGET

PARTNER

PROJECT

LOCATION

Climate Change: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

With economic growth and growing prosperity the energy demands in India are rising. The country is now faced with the challenge of meeting growing energy needs to sustain its economic growth, while dealing with the global threat of climate change.

In various booming economic sectors, such as retail, hotel industry, business, and information technology, new buildings are being constructed. They require a large amount of energy to operate, example, for air-conditioning. The countrywide electricity consumption in commercial buildings since 2003 has gone up by 13 percent annually. This poses a challenge to the overall energy supply, and at the same time has an impact on the environment. The use of energy efficient design and technology therefore is crucial. In India there is a potential to reduce energy consumption in new commercial buildings by up to 50 percent. In 2007, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) of the Government of India came up with an energy code for new buildings. The code focuses on the implementation of minimum energy efficiency standards for the design of new buildings for commercial purposes. This code, however, is not mandatory.

Switzerland started implementing building energy efficiency programmes 30 years ago. The experience has shown that not only energy regulations and guidelines need to be put in place, but the capacity of the main actors also needs to be built and market development initiatives need to be launched. The SDC project therefore intends to utilize Swiss experience and knowledge in this area to promote implementation of cost effective energy efficiency and energy conservation measures. This would lead to the reduction of energy demands, enhance energy security and limit greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector in India.

GOAL

The overall objective of the project is to reduce energy consumption in new commercial buildings in India. Furthermore, the project aims at building capacities and knowledge of builders, architects, engineers, research and development laboratories and others, in the area of building energy efficiency in India by utilizing Swiss experience and expertise.

SUCCESS HIGHLIGHT

“The growing construction sector in India provides a unique opportunity to contribute to low carbon development path. The Swiss competencies in the areas of building energy efficiency give a comparative advantage for SDC’s contribution in this field.“

APPROACHES

• The project seeks to organize a

network in Switzerland of Swiss experts in energy efficient building design and technologies in order to build capacities and knowledge in India.

• Design “charrettes” (workshops)

are organized, involving Swiss and Indian experts as well as design teams for a selected commercial building in India. The result of such a workshop will be an energy efficiency design strategy for the selected project. At the same time awareness building seminars are held to reach out to a large number of building sector professionals.

• Guidelines on the design of

residential buildings will be developed together with tools, which people can use to design energy efficient residential buildings.

• Building materials and components

have to be adequately tested for thermal properties. Using Swiss expertise, assistance will be given to strengthen building material testing institutions and infrastructure.

• The project also looks at sharing

knowledge, aiming at creating a network of practitioners, connecting India and Switzerland and developing countries. Three international workshops are planned in the project.

RESULTS

The project would strengthen BEE’s efforts to realize an energy efficient path for the growing construction sector in India.

The project would develop capacities of a variety of private sector players in the Indian building sector to design energy efficient buildings. It will strengthen the already existing building material testing infrastructure and would support the development of guidelines and tools for designing energy efficient residential buildings.

CONTACT

Swiss Cooperation Office India

Chandragupta Marg Chanakyapuri

New Delhi - 110 021, India. E-mail: delhi@sdc.net Phone: + 91-11-26877819