Optimizing the decarbonization of a geographically dispersed building portfolio

Trevor Betz, Khaled El-Rayes, Michael Johnson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Many organizations are actively pursuing decarbonization goals to help mitigate the effects of climate change. This situation often requires capital replacement of building components with different fuel or higher efficiency variants to reduce emissions. However, this problem is complicated when an organization operates across a wide geographic area due to regional differences in weather, utility costs, and electrical grid emissions. This paper develops a framework for this problem by implementing energy, emissions, cost, and decision models that can scale across large organizations. The resulting decisions show the ability to reach decarbonization goals with lower costs and better rates of return. Compared to condition or unit-capacity ranking strategies, case studies show that the developed model reduces emissions by as much as 68.99 % or costs by as much as 47.08 %, depending on organizational goals.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number111767
JournalBuilding and Environment
Volume262
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 15 2024
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Decarbonization
  • Greenhouse gas
  • Optimization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Civil and Structural Engineering
  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Building and Construction

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