Elsevier

Energy and Buildings

Volume 205, 15 December 2019, 109543
Energy and Buildings

Modular facade retrofit with renewable energy technologies: The definition and current status in Europe

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109543Get rights and content

Highlights

Abstract

Over the last decade, a number of research and innovation projects have started developing modular facade retrofit solutions which integrate on-site renewable energy technologies. Although there are a growing number of academic articles and demonstration projects showcasing their achievements, the overview of current status and development trend are missing. It is difficult for policymakers, the public and fellow researchers to understand the evolution of modular facade retrofit technologies and who are the important players in the field. As a part of the ongoing European Commission Horizon 2020 project team, the authors decided to write this review article that meets the above needs.

Due to the lack of clarification in previous studies, this article firstly introduced and defined the term of Modular Facade Retrofit with Renewable energy technologies (MFRRn), then provided its classification and the review of recent evolution. The MFRRn refer to the retrofitting process that thermal insulation, solar and wind harvest technologies are integrated with the exterior finish of building using modular approach. According to our definition, the MFRRn should fulfil four basic aspects: work to be conducted on existing buildings, work to be undertaken on the facade, using a modular approach, and integrating renewable energy technologies during the retrofit.

This study then reviewed 173 research projects funded under the European Commission the seventh Framework, the Horizon 2020′s Energy Efficient Buildings programme, the International Energy Agency Energy in Buildings and Communities (IEA EBC) Annex 50 ‘Prefab Systems for Low Energy/High Comfort Building Renewal’ project, the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action TU1403 ‘Adaptive facades network’. The review shows that at least 14 European Commission research projects and 4 case studies mentioned in COST TU1403 and IEA Annex 50 have involved in certain of level of MFRRn development. Their research progress, timeframe, funding scale and funding flow to nations and contributions from key institutes are analysed. Finally, the current challenges regarding the MFRRn developments and implementations are discussed, and future research focus is proposed.

Introduction

Following the recent agreements between European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission, the European Parliament has confirmed in November 2018 new 2030 targets of at least a 40% reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emission (compared with 1990 levels), at least 32% share for renewable energy and at least 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency (compared with 2007 baseline). To achieve these legal binding targets, collective efforts in carbon reduction and renewable energy generation are needed to decarbonise the existing building stock.

The Energy-efficient Building Public-Private Partnership scheme was launched in December 2008 under the European Commission's seventh framework and the Horizon 2020 programme. It aims to develop affordable breakthrough technologies and solutions at building and district scale. Until February 2019, around 600-million-euro European Union budget has been allocated for 173 project consortiums to tackle the challenges in carbon reduction and renewable energy generation. The partners from private sectors within the consortium also made an additional 30% match-contribution to these projects for their research and innovation activities.

Under the Energy-efficient Building scheme, a specific challenge of integrating energy harvesting at building and district level have been identified by the European Commission as one of the key priorities for research and innovation development. A number of research and innovation projects are supported through this scheme from 2008. Together with partners in the International Energy Agency Energy in Buildings and Communities (IEA EBC) Annex 50 project (2007–2010) and COST TU1403 (2014–2018), key players from Europe have started developing modular facade retrofit solutions which integrate on-site renewable energy technologies.

Although there are a growing number of academic articles and demonstration projects showcasing their achievements, the overview of current status and development trend are not clear. It is difficult for policymakers, the public and fellow researchers to understand the evolution of modular facade retrofit technologies and who are the important players in the field. As a part of the ongoing European Commission Horizon 2020 project team, the authors decided to write this review article to fulfil the gap that there is no single journal article to summarise the current status and development trend of modular facade retrofit with renewable energy technologies in Europe. This article also targets researchers and policymakers based outside Europe but interested in similar development and research in their countries and regions. The current status in Europe, challenges, research focus and research method should be valuable for international audiences.

Section snippets

Method

To achieve greenhouse gas emission 2030 target, renewable energy and energy efficiency target, European Commission's seventh framework and the Horizon 2020 programme supported 173 innovation projects related building energy efficiency, including a number of research projects which decided to utilise building facade as a breakthrough to improve the building energy efficiency [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15]. A clear trend can be found in these

Evolution of facade

The definition of facade is developing continuously. The Dictionary of Construction, Surveying and Civil Engineering 2012 [26] claim that ‘facade’ is ‘the external face of a building, usually the front’ of the building. According to the ISO 6707-1:2017 definition [27], it is often referring to the ‘exterior surface of a wall enclosing a building, usually non-loadbearing, which can include a curtain wall, cladding, or other exterior finish’. It can be noticed that ‘usually the front’ in the

Current status of MFRRn development

The Austrian Institute for Sustainable Technologies initiated the IEA ECBCS Annex 50 ‘Prefab Systems for Low Energy/High Comfort Building Renewal’ in 2007. With the inputs from industry partners and international partners, the Annex has published a series of reports on Retrofit Strategies, Retrofit Module Design Guide, and Case studies during 2010–2012. The Retrofit Module Design Guide [1] presented four different approaches on how prefabricated renovation modules could be designed and

Challenges and research focus

The implementation of advanced energy efficiency and renewable retrofit is facing a number of challenges. Simona et al. [86] reviewed 31 EU-funded projects that dealt with deep renovations and summarised the challenges from three aspects: technical challenges, financial challenges and social challenges. The deep renovations in their paper mean significant efficiency improvements with a reduction in energy in a range of 60–90% [87].

During the delivery of PLUG-N-HARVEST project, authors hosted

Conclusion

Although there are a growing number of academic articles and demonstration projects showcasing their achievements, the overview of current status and development trend are missing. As a part of the ongoing European Commission Horizon 2020 project team, the authors reviewed 173 research projects funded under the European Commission the seventh Framework, the Horizon 2020‘s Energy Efficient Buildings programme, the International Energy Agency Energy in Buildings and Communities (IEA EBC) Annex 50

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Hu Du: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft. Puxi Huang: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft. Phillip Jones: .

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Acknowledgement

This research has received funding from the Welsh Government's Sêr Cymru (Stars Wales) fellowship programme and the European Commission's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 768735.

References (88)

  • X. Zhang

    Building integrated solar thermal (BIST) technologies and their applications: a review of structural design and architectural integration

    J. Fundam. Renew. Energy Appl.

    (2015)
  • C. Peng et al.

    Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) in architectural design in China

    Energy Build.

    (2011)
  • M Debbarma et al.

    Thermal modeling, exergy analysis, performance of BIPV and BIPVT: a review

    Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.

    (2017)
  • D. Tetlow

    Cellulosic-crystals as a fumed-silica substitute in vacuum insulated panel technology used in building construction and retrofit applications

    Energy Build.

    (2017)
  • R. Kobler

    IEA ECBCS Annex 50: Retrofit Module Design Guide

    (2011)
  • CORDIS. MEEFS RETROFITTING, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. RETROKIT, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. HERB, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. ADAPTIWALL, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. MORE-CONNECT, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. BRESAER, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. BERTIM, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. 4RinEU, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. PLUG-N-HARVEST, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. RenoZEB, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. HEART, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. Envision, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. EnergyMatching, (2018)....
  • CORDIS. ReCO2ST, (2018)....
  • B.G. Glaser et al.

    Awareness of Dying

    (2017)
  • Y. Jabareen

    Building a conceptual framework: philosophy, definitions, and procedure

    Int. J. Qual. Methods

    (2009)
  • G. Deleuze et al.

    What is Philosophy?

    (1994)
  • H Khiat

    A grounded theory approach: conceptions of understanding in engineering mathematics learning

    Qual. Rep.

    (2010)
  • (55 City Road, London,...
  • Sattrup, P.A. Architectural research paradigms: an overview and a research example....
  • B.G. Glaser et al.

    The discovery of grounded theory; strategies for qualitative research

    Nurs. Res.

    (1968)
  • N.V.N. Chism et al.

    Qualitative Research Basics: A Guide for Engineering Educators

    (2008)
  • V. Bitsch

    Qualitative research: a grounded theory example and evaluation criteria

    J. Agribus.

    (2005)
  • C. Gorse et al.

    A Dictionary of Construction, Surveying, and Civil Engineering

    (2012)
  • I.S.O. Vol. ISO. 6707-1:2017 (ISO,...
  • T. Herzog et al.

    Facade Construction Manual

    (2012)
  • A. Watts et al.

    Façades: Technical Review

    (2007)
  • U. Knaack et al.

    Façades: Principles of Construction

    (2014)
  • Miller, T.D. & Elgard, P. in Defining modules, modularity and modularization. Proceedings of the 13th IPS Research...
  • Cited by (38)

    • Analysis of the barriers to implementing building integrated photovoltaics in Singapore using an interpretive structural modelling approach

      2022, Journal of Cleaner Production
      Citation Excerpt :

      Thus, the impact of B7 (lack of cost-effective modular products) should be addressed as a priority. The outcome is consistent with the previous studies (Prieto et al., 2017; Du et al., 2019; Freitas and Brito, 2019) and emphasizes the critical role of relevant design and products in promoting BIPV implementation. In other words, there is a need to include other barriers into the design of cost-effective modular products.

    • Multicriteria assessment of renewable energy sources under uncertainty: Barriers to adoption

      2021, Technological Forecasting and Social Change
      Citation Excerpt :

      The proposed methods and measures are presented. RESs are naturally renewable energy sources existing in a local environment, including wind, solar, water, geothermal, biomass and ocean energy, that are utilized to reduce economic costs and environmental impact and improve social welfare (Du et al., 2019; Ramos and Rouboa, 2020; Yao et al., 2020). Environmental impact must be considered for all sectors through the phases of production, processing, distribution and consumption (Mukuve and Fenner, 2015; Perez and Garcia-Rendon, 2020; Sharif et al., 2020).

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text