Cool roofs can mitigate cooling energy demand for informal settlement dwellers

Alex Nutkiewicz, Alessio Mastrucci, Narasimha D. Rao and Rishee K. Jain

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2022, vol. 159, issue C

Abstract: Cities are critical to meeting our sustainable energy goals. Informal settlement redevelopment programs represent an opportunity to improve living conditions and curb increasing demand for active cooling. We introduce an energy modeling framework for informal settlements to investigate how building design decisions influence the onset of heat stress and energy-intensive cooling demand. We show that occupants of tropically-located informal settlements are most vulnerable to prolonged heat stress year-round. Up to 98% of annual heat stress exposure can be mitigated by improving the building envelope. We find a universal solution (cool roofs) that reduces up to 91% of annual heat stress exposure. Finally, we show how proposed redevelopment building schemes could worsen thermal conditions of dwellers and further increase urban energy demand. Our results underscore how building design affects human well-being and highlight potential near-term and long-term pathways for reducing energy-intensive cooling demand for 800+ million informal settlement dwellers worldwide.

Keywords: Heat stress; Space cooling; Informal settlements; Energy simulation; Building energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032122001083
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:159:y:2022:i:c:s1364032122001083

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2022.112183

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().