ABSTRACT
Sustainable building, otherwise referred to as “green building,” is one of the promising solutions to alleviate the depletion of energy resources and to solve a number of environmental problems. In addition to the energy conservation, the in-depth integration of renewable energy resources and their utilization in buildings are the other key components of green buildings. Under this context, the exploitation of renewable energy resources and technologies applicable for integration into the green buildings were investigated based on a case study. Solar energy was initially selected as a promising renewable energy source due to the abundant solar radiation throughout the year and its highly-coordinated activity schedule with building occupants’ daily routine. The potential of the solar energy that could be used in buildings through Building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technique was reviewed. In addition, a number of harvestable ambient energy sources exist inside of buildings. The vibration-based energy harvesting, piezoelectric energy generation as a renewable energy source possesses the potential to be integrated into buildings due to its ability to capture the surrounding ambient vibration then directly converting the applied strain energy into usable electrical energy. Furthermore, biomass produced in commercial buildings, such as coffee grounds, can be converted into bioenergy using various techniques. Pyrolysis, as one of the most promising thermochemical conversion technique, can achieve thermal decomposition of biomass in the absence of oxygen to derive bio-char, bio-oil, and biogas. Anaerobic digestion, a widely-applied bio-chemical process for energy production was also investigated. Together with direct combustion, the bioenergy production potential of the three conversion techniques was evaluated and compared.
