“The construction sector has an essential role to play in integrating renewable energies.”

Hannah Audino leads the Energy Transition Commission’s work on building decarbonization and low-carbon finance. Prior to this, she was an economist at PwC, working on regulation, policy and macroeconomics. Hannah agreed to share her analysis of the energy challenge facing the construction sector.

What are the current challenges facing the construction sector in terms of the energy transition?

Buildings will place greater demands on the world’s electricity grids in the future, as demand for air conditioning increases worldwide and the electrification of heating and cooking in northern latitude countries takes place. The quality and energy performance of the building stock can play a significant role in helping to manage electricity demand in a renewable energy system. By ensuring that new buildings have sufficient thermal inertia to retain heat, we can not only reduce overall energy consumption, but also enable households to effectively ‘pre-heat’ their homes before peak times.

At the same time as decarbonizing, the construction sector has a critical role to play in creating flexible buildings which are fit for a renewables-dominated energy system.

In hot countries, there are many inexpensive solutions that the construction sector needs to incorporate into their new developments, such as thinking about orientation to minimize solar gain, or painting roofs white to reflect heat.  These so called “passive cooling” strategies can significantly reduce how much a building heats up, reducing electricity demand for AC and delivering huge social, health and productivity benefits.

What would be the overall impact of measures to reduce the energy consumption of buildings?

Estimates suggest that reducing operational energy use in new buildings beyond current regulated standards by 25% may only add 1-5% to construction costs. In turn, this will reduce the overall size and cost of the renewable energy system we need to build, the amount we need to turn to fossil fuel electricity generation, and household energy bills.

*operational energy beyond current regulatory standards

In your opinion, what are the most important levers for accelerating the sector’s energy transition?

In my view, the most important action to improve the energy efficiency of new buildings is through regulation. Building codes need to set clear timetables for how minimum energy intensity standards (for example, the energy consumption per m² that buildings must meet) will increase over time, improve enforcement and monitoring, and ensure that assessment is based on actual, rather than modelled, performance data.

Also read: Game of Norms: the rules of the game in the building sector

What key figure would you like to highlight in this interview?

We recently came across some very interesting analysis¹ of how much the temperature of homes in different countries falls after heating is switched off. It shows that in Norway and France, after five hours, inside temperatures fell by 1^oC, but in the UK they fell by 3 ^oC. This reflects differences in insulation and the overall energy efficiency of building stock. It highlights the importance that insulation will play in reducing overall household energy consumption, especially at peak times. For example, in Norway and France, the higher quality of their housing means that households can effectively “pre-heat” their homes ahead of peak times.

¹ Source: Tado

Photo credits: Powerhouse Brattørkaia : Ivar Kvaal.