Green and white roofs are sustainable solutions for reducing urban heat and improving building energy performance. When combined with photovoltaic (PV) systems, they are often promoted as technologies that also enhance solar energy yield. However, our comprehensive analysis reveals that...
With the Swiss energy transition underway, homeowners might consider investing in a photovoltaics (PV) system. However, the optimal PV system design depends on the homeowner’s preferences: We show that if the primary goal is to save money, one might favor...
Harnessing the sun's energy to generate electricity through building envelopes presents an opportunity for us to contribute to a better future. But what is the energy generation potential of your building, and how can you estimate it? Beyond energy generation...
Community solar systems, defined as medium to large-scale PV installations co-owned by multiple building owners and/or tenants, offer one option to increase PV adoption in cities. This blogpost summarizes the findings of our recent paper that explores if, by how...
Building retrofits are increasingly assessed from an environmental perspective. Standard assessment methods, however, largely do not consider future developments and fail to take into account the state of climate emergency where the time horizon is substantially shorter than the expected...
Prominent policy initiatives all over the globe are polarizing society for how to govern an increasingly unaffordable building stock in the era of sustainability - even in the quaint city of Basel in traditionally neutral Switzerland. While our readership is...
Wood is an ancient construction material, but it has been gradually substituted with concrete and steel. However, the advantages of wood are now being (re)discovered as sustainability becomes a global interest and advanced manufacturing technologies become available. This article focuses...
It is estimated that buildings are responsible for 36% of global final energy use and 40% of the energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. Buildings are also complex machines with long life cycles, which include regular maintenance and updates. Thus,...
Today, only a minority of Swiss households have air conditioners installed for cooling. This might change due to the warming climate and the growing integration of heat pumps to new buildings, which can be used for heating and cooling. The...
In order to efficiently integrate intermittent renewable energy into our grids, we need to change the role that buildings play in a city. Instead of being mere consumers, they need to become a swarm of smart prosumers capable of stabilizing...
In the wake of the current global pandemic, building resilience to future pandemics will be on the minds of many policymakers going forward. For sub-Saharan Africa, linking electrification with essential services such as healthcare, clean water and sanitation, could do...
The integration of solar energy technologies in buildings has been available for several decades. However, many buildings are still built without any PV or solar thermal collectors, which in my opinion is an intolerable situation.
