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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Energy Res.
Sec. Energy Efficiency
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2024.1503382

The potential of NZEB for existing and prospective school buildings by applying energy conservation measures and efficient technologies suitable for hot arid climate

Provisionally accepted
Hamad H. Almutairi Hamad H. Almutairi *Jaber H Almutairi Jaber H Almutairi Abdulwahab E Alhashem Abdulwahab E Alhashem Abdulrahman S Almutairi Abdulrahman S Almutairi
  • Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Kuwait City, Kuwait

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This work attempts to resolve the challenges associated with shifting school buildings to NZEB in Kuwait. A systematic approach is suggested that is focused on two scenarios for new and retrofitted schools. This approach covers several energy conservation measures with the help of DesignBuilder Building Thermal Simulation, and it examines different scenarios to utilize 80% of the area of the roof for the installation of Photovoltaics (PV) and on-site wind turbines. Both types of schools have similar renewable energy capacities, but the new school can utilize all of the suggested energy conservation measures. The superiority of the design of the new school will result in an annual saving of 770 MWh of electricity rather than the 462 MWh that will be provided the retrofitted school. The economic assessment indicates that utilizing the highest roof area for PV installations fulfils the NZEB balance, with respective discounted paybacks of 3.55 and 5.54 years for the new and retrofitted schools. However, adding wind turbines was found to be less practical due to a longer breakeven period compared to rooftop PV alone. The estimated annual savings are 589 GWh for the existing 1,275 schools under the retrofitting scheme and 130 GWh for 170 new schools, whereas operating PV at 80% of the area of the roof for each school can generate 40.63 GWh in 25 years and avoid the production of 29.23 kilotons of CO2.

    Keywords: NZEB, Hot climate, Present value, Discounted payback, Avoided CO2

    Received: 28 Sep 2024; Accepted: 04 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Almutairi, Almutairi, Alhashem and Almutairi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Hamad H. Almutairi, Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Kuwait City, Kuwait

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.