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The Army is required by law (EPACT 2005, EISA 2007) to eliminate fossil fuel use in new and renovated facilities by 2030 and to reduce overall facility energy usage by 30% by 2015. Army policy is to achieve eight net zero energy pilot installations by 2020, 25 net zero energy installations by 2031, and for all installations to achieve net zero energy status by 2058. Achieving Net Zero Energy (NZE) will only be possible if an optimum mix of demand reduction and renewable sources are put in place at a community (installation) or building cluster scale. The Army operates what are essentially small campuses, or clusters of buildings on its installations. The US Department of Energy (DOE) is focused on the national grid scale or on individual buildings, while the commercial focus is on retrofits to individual buildings. There are only few case studies worldwide that address dynamics of energy systems at the community scale, and to date, there is a lack of tools to perform that task. The building stock at most US Army installations is complex and includes a mix of high and low energy use buildings. Energy use in these buildings varies due to the different military mission and requirements for each building, installation growth and expansion, and soldier deployment. Achieving net zero energy economically at such installations will require a seamless blend of energy conservation in individual buildings and building systems automation, utility management and control, and power delivery systems that have the capability to offer integration of on-site power generation (including renewable energy sources). This paper describes the Net Zero fossil fuel based energy optimization process and illustrates it with an example based on the results of study conducted for a cluster of buildings at Fort Irwin, CA. The integrated optimization process is being developed under the Army research and development project "Modeling Net Zero Installations - Energy (NZI-E)" and the International Energy Agency (IEA) Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems (ECBCS) Annex 51. The process is stepped, beginning with the optimization of each building to achieve the most cost effective energy efficient optimization of building envelope and energy using systems. Then energy saving measures affecting the total building cluster are optimized taking advantages of the diversification between energy intensities, scheduling, and waste energy streams utilization. The energy demands of the resulting energy-use optimized cluster will require the minimum sized renewable energy system needed to make the building cluster Net Zero fossil fuel energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Centre for Efficient and Renewable Energy in Buildings (CEREB) is a unique teaching, research and demonstration resource for the built environment hosting a number of renewable and intelligent energy solutions. CEREB has been developed in partnership between London South Bank, City and Kingston Universities with funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), London Development Agency (LDA) and M&E Sustainability. Located at roof level of the new London South Bank University teaching facility K2, the Centre houses evacuated solar tubes for domestic hot water, Photovoltaics (PV) providing electricity and ground source heat pumps providing heating for the entire building, and, through reverse cycle operation, provide cooling in the summer. The data from the monitoring systems is available via a web interface that allows it to be used for collaborative research, which gives the Centre an important international dimension. The data has been collected since May 2010 and its performance closely monitored to add invaluable resource for understanding how to design, operate and manage technologies for future low carbon buildings - both new build and retrofit. This paper reviews the performance of the building integrated renewables; solar thermal, PV and ground source heat pumps. It explores the designed building against real performance through data collected to date and identifies difficulties in integrating, commissioning and operating renewable technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developed world is increasingly energy constrained. There is an urgent need to reduce dependence on energy imports from unstable or unfriendly areas of the world and to increase the use of renewable energy technologies to meet our energy needs into the 21st century. In Europe the provision of a more secure energy supply is now the primary driver of energy supply and efficiency related policies. In the UK there are now explicit incentives for the use of technologies delivering heat from renewable sources: the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and a mechanism for paying incentives for the installation of electricity generation equipment through the "Feed in Tariff". There is also a programme for the installation of energy efficiency measures in existing buildings which are initially funded by market packages, and these are then paid off over the following years from the reduced utility bills which the measures facilitate. There is also the European Union's Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which has recently been updated and will require mandatory improvements to existing buildings as well as the setting of minimum standards of energy performance for new and existing buildings, with a target for all new buildings within the European Union to be "nearly zero carbon" by 2020. This paper will review the legal mechanisms being introduced to incentivise low or zero carbon technologies, or to require standards of building fabric performance that will reduce dependency on energy imports. It will discuss the introduction of new standards for energy efficient dwellings, and will also detail the various technologies supported or encouraged and will also demonstrate the benefits offered by the various schemes. While it will focus on the UK experience, it will also draw on experience from the various schemes adopted elsewhere in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]