Assessing carbon emission reduction potential of green building energy saving technologies in operation of typical public buildings

Green building technologies play an important role in carbon emission reduction in the building sector. This paper focuses on the energy conservation in the public building operational phase to assess the carbon emission reduction potential of several major green building technologies. Energy use intensity is simulated using EnergyPlus with prototypical models of various green building scenarios for office buildings and hotels in Shanghai and Harbin. The carbon emission factor is calculated according to the energy structure in the building sector in China. The results show that passive technologies such as daylighting and natural ventilation can bring significant reductions in carbon emissions, followed by retrofitting of building envelopes and energy efficiency improvement of HVAC equipment. According to the technical requirements of three-star green buildings, under the comprehensive scenario of fully applying seven three-star green building energy saving technologies, the total operational carbon emission reduction rate can reach nearly 25% for hotels and 19% for office buildings.