A Review on Harnessing Renewable Energy Synergies for Achieving Urban Net-Zero Energy Buildings: Technologies, Performance Evaluation, Policies, Challenges, and Future Direction

Abstract

As urbanization continues to accelerate globally, energy demand in cities is reaching unprecedented levels, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. In response, the concept of net-zero energy building (NZEB) is becoming a sustainable solution for urban energy needs. NZEB aims to achieve a net-zero energy footprint by balancing the energy it consumes with the energy it produces, primarily from renewable energy (RE) sources. This comprehensive literature review-based study explores the role of RE synergies in the context of urban NZEBs, including discussions on definition and development of NZEBs, RE-synergies for achieving NZEBs, sustainable trends and clusters of NZEBs, climate change impacts on NZEBs, their performance evaluation, policy and regulatory frameworks, and challenges and possible solutions related to NZEBs. It has been identified that while customizing NZEB definitions to align with regional energy supply and demand is important, the same is highly dependent on building architectural and micro-climate features. The assessment of climate change effects and NZEB practices should involve evaluating building energy equilibrium, occupant comfort, and interactions with the energy grid. There are still some technical, policy, and socio-economic challenges that need more attention to provide comprehensive solutions for further enhancing the sustainable development/performance of NZEBs and achieving their goal.