Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/607779
DECEMBER 2015 | 25 PHOTOGRAPHY iSTOCK Because of cheap power from BC Hydro, getting a quick payback on some green technologies like solar PV is not in the cards. "But payback is dropping to about 20 years. People are accepting longer payback times, though," Steeves says. Lighting is one area of significant progress on the energy front. "Lighting is all going LED. Lighting has gone from three watts per square foot to half a watt per square foot," he says. Reaching the elusive goal of net-zero for large buildings, Steeves says, is difficult, unless they have only two floors. These could have a roof covered in solar PV panels, which would be equal to 50 per cent of the building's floor space. Despite challenges, recent innovations ranging from the Tesla Powerwall to the chill beam look set to make a difference. "HVAC has become a very innovative sec- tor," says John Scott, VP of HDR | CEI. Although there has been concern about the high costs of solar PV installation on individual buildings, solar PV made up almost half of the world's total clean energy investments in 2014, due to large improvements in cost competitiveness over the last five years, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Solar PV installation increased from 37 gigawatts (GW) in 2013 to about 46 GW in 2014. Installed costs of solar PV panels on solar PV farms, not buildings, dropped by about 40 per cent between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the fourth quarter of 2013, according to a report from Deloitte. Even hospitals – where electricity consumption tends to be high and back-up systems de rigueur – might start using solar PV at some in the future. "Systems in hospitals have mostly relied on diesel generators for back-up in the past. An option that's likely in future is solar PV with battery storage. But right now, there's no reli- able system of storage. It's still the weak point of solar PV," says Brent Whiteley, VP of Parkin Architects Limited. Hospitals typically include sterilization, IT and transformer rooms that require cooling year round. Heat recovery systems could be deployed for these areas more than it is right now, Whiteley says, and adds, "We have used heat recovery for trans- former rooms." Computer-controlled fibre optic systems for daylighting are another option that should see more applications in future, he says. Retrofits are sure to comprise a large part of constructing a built environment with a smaller ecological footprint. Today's buildings will account for the lion's share of the existing buildings in 2030 and many of them will likely require a make- over sometime before then. Retrofits present a chance to upgrade a building's thermal performance, but con- vincing an owner of this is another matter. "Most retrofits are focused on mitigat- ing moisture, not energy," says Duncan Rowe, a building scientist and associate at Read Jones Christoffersen (RJC) Ltd. RJC was recently involved in several cladding retrofit projects including window replacements and over-cladding of older mass wall systems. Although the work was Green Building Design Solar PV made up almost half of the world's total clean energy investments in 2014.