Assessment of the Technical Potential for Achieving Net-Zero Energy Buildings in the Commercial Sector
This report summarizes the findings from research conducted at NREL to assess the technical potential for zero-energy building (ZEB) technologies and practices to reduce the impact of commercial buildings on the U.S. energy system. Commercial buildings currently account for 18% of annual U.S. energy consumption, and energy use is growing along with overall floor area. Reducing the energy use of this sector will require aggressive research goals and rapid implementation of the research results. The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Program (BT) has adopted a goal of developing market-viable ZEBs by 2025. In this study, NREL researchers developed quantitative predictions to answer the questions: How low can you practically go in terms of energy use? To what extent can rooftop photovoltaics (PV) supply the remaining energy needs of commercial buildings? NREL used DOE’s energy modeling tool EnergyPlus to quantify the energy performance opportunities for a large set of building models derived from the 2003.
Visit NREL’s Website
