The potential of NZEB for existing and prospective school buildings by applying energy conservation measures and efficient technologies suitable for hot arid climate

It is commonly known that buildings in hot climate contribute to a huge amount of electricity consumption mainly due to air conditioning needs. Many countries around the world are aiming to convert buildings to net zero energy buildings (NZEB). However, buildings in hot climates require varieties of active and passive measures to adapt the concepts behind NZEB. This work attempts to resolve the challenges associated with shifting school buildings to NZEB in hot arid climates. It presents an energy performance analysis that is focused on two scenarios for new and retrofitted schools. Building thermal simulation is used to assess the implications of several energy conservation measures, and different scenarios are suggested to utilize up to 80% of roof’s area for the installation of Photovoltaics (PV), and on-site wind turbines. The implemented energy conservation measures show a reduction in annual energy consumption by 35% and 21% for new and retrofitted schools respectively. Discounted payback period is used to estimate the economic feasibility of the suggested scenarios. It is found that NZEB is technically feasible at highest roof area PV installations with respective discounted paybacks of 3.55 and 5.54 years for the new and retrofitted schools. However, adding wind-turbines can delay the breakeven year of investments needed to achieve NZEB. The estimated savings in net present value (NPV) are 3273 and 4284 thousand US dollars for the retrofitted and new schools respectively, and each school’s roof can generate 40.63 GWh in 25 years and avoid 29.23 kilotons of CO 2 .