Environmental Assessment of Energy System Upgrades in Public Buildings

Abstract

The use of fossil fuel-based energy systems that provide heat and electricity to a building has adverse environmental impacts. These impacts can be mitigated, to a certain extent, through the incorporation of renewable energy sources (RES). The primary objective of this study was to conduct an environmental assessment of the performance of energy systems in existing public facilities located in Poland. Based on the findings, we proposed and implemented changes to these systems and validated the environmental impact of the RES systems used. SimaPro 8.1 software and the Ecoinvent 3.0 database were employed for the analysis, which entailed an environmental assessment of six public facilities located in Poland. The installation of RES resulted in an average 27% reduction in electricity consumption from the national electricity grid. This reduction was observed to be the least in the hospital and the most in the religious building. This was reflected in the environmental assessment of heating systems. The implementation of RES reduced the environmental impact of the religious building by an average of 20%. Concurrently, the CO2 emissions decreased by 35%, SO2 by 44%, and PM10 by 42%. Significant investments and the installation of advanced RES will not prevent the occurrence of unintentional environmental consequences unless the demand for electricity and thermal energy is reduced. The use of RES in the analyzed buildings and the associated avoided emissions do not entirely offset the negative emissions resulting from the utilization of other (conventional) energy sources in the analyzed energy systems of public buildings. Consequently, the analyzed facilities collectively exert a detrimental impact on the environment.