Analysis of Directions to Increase the Energy Efficiency of Office Buildings in Ukraine to the Nzeb Level

Abstract

The article is an analysis of the feasibility of replacing the energy source with heating an office building in Kyiv to the level of a building using energy produced by renewable sources (biomass). The authors assessed the potential of biomass in Ukraine, the logistics routes to ensure uninterrupted supply and the cost of renewable resources. Estimation of necessary investments of transition from energy source to heating, running on natural gas, to energy source, running on biomass (sunflower husk), is given by changing the integral cost of heating costs for three options for thermal protection of the building: non-insulated (existing) building; building, the level of thermal protection of which meets the requirements of Ukraine; a building whose thermal protection level satisfies the requirements of Sweden. In particular, the authors determined that the integral cost of heating when using a boiler on pellets from sunflower husks without improving the thermal insulation of the enclosing structures of the building is significantly lower than when using natural gas as an energy carrier for the production of thermal energy, and the initial cost of an insulated building meets the requirements of Ukraine and the requirements of Sweden when using a natural gas boiler is significantly higher than an uninsulated building with a biomass boiler. The results obtained indicate that there are prospects for scaling buildings with almost zero energy consumption in Ukraine, given the development potential of biomass and the significantly lower unit cost of biomass energy compared to natural gas.