Towards Sustainable Cities: A Review of Zero Energy Buildings Techniques and Global Activities in Residential Buildings

Gamal Ali Mohammed (), Mahmoud Mabrouk (), Guoqing He and Karim I. Abdrabo
Additional contact information
Gamal Ali Mohammed: College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Mahmoud Mabrouk: Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Urban &Regional Planning, Cairo University, Cairo 11562, Egypt
Guoqing He: College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Karim I. Abdrabo: Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Urban &Regional Planning, Cairo University, Cairo 11562, Egypt

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-26

Abstract: Under rapid urbanization-induced global warming and resource depletion, growing interest in zero-energy building (ZEB) and zero-emission building (ZEB) technologies have emerged globally to improve energy performance in homes and shape sustainable cities. Although several countries have released ZEB-enhanced strategies and set national standards and policies to promote ZEBs, construction projects are still limited to demonstration projects. This paper reviews global ZEB activities and state-of-the-art technologies for energy-efficient residential building technologies [based on an evaluation of 40 residential buildings]. Over 40 residential buildings on different continents were reviewed, and their technical details and performance were evaluated. Our results show that 62.5% of the buildings achieved the +ZEB standard, 25% of the buildings were net-zero energy buildings, and only 12.5% of the buildings were near-zero energy buildings. Solar PV is the most widely used renewable energy source in the studied cases, while in warmer climates, advanced cooling technologies and heat pumps are the preferred technologies. A building envelope and thermal ventilation with heat recovery are essential in cold climates. Our systematic analysis reveals that the thermal performance of the building envelope and solar energy are the most effective mechanisms for achieving energy efficiency and shaping sustainable cities.

Keywords: intelligent city systems; zero emission; sustainable cities; zero energy house; climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/9/3775/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/9/3775/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:9:p:3775-:d:1135529

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().