IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i11p5157-d1671570.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Analysis of Energy Efficiency Actions and Photovoltaic Energy in Public Buildings in a Semi-Arid Region: The Requirements for Positive Energy and Net-Zero Energy Buildings in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Elder Ramon Chaves da Costa

    (Electrical Engineering Graduate Program, Federal University of the Semiarid Region—UFERSA, Street Francisco Mota, n◦ 572, Mossoro 59625-900, Brazil)

  • Rogério Diogne de Souza e Silva

    (Electrical Engineering Graduate Program, Federal University of the Semiarid Region—UFERSA, Street Francisco Mota, n◦ 572, Mossoro 59625-900, Brazil)

  • Victor de Paula Brandão Aguiar

    (Electrical Engineering Graduate Program, Federal University of the Semiarid Region—UFERSA, Street Francisco Mota, n◦ 572, Mossoro 59625-900, Brazil)

Abstract

The search for sustainable energy alternatives is urgent in the face of climate change and resource scarcity. In this context, increasing energy efficiency in buildings through distributed energy resources (DERs) is crucial for sustainability and self-sufficiency. This article aims to analyze the impact of several energy efficiency actions, in addition to the installation of a photovoltaic solar energy system in a public building in a semi-arid region, determining the necessary aspects for such buildings to become positive energy buildings (PEBs) and/or net zero energy buildings (NZEBs). As a basis for the methodology, a case study was carried out in a university restaurant in a semi-arid region in Brazil. Several pieces of data were collected, such as the air temperature, solar radiation, active energy and the number of users in the building. The relevance of each variable in relation to electricity consumption was identified through statistical correlation analysis, resulting in an energy consumption per square meter per year of 80.78 kWh/m 2 /year and an active energy consumption per user per year of 0.88 kWh/m 2 /year. Three energy efficiency actions were evaluated and compared technically and economically against the investment in a grid-connected photovoltaic system (GCPVS) for the same building, simulating before and after the entry into force of Law 14.300/2022, which regulates distributed generation in Brazil. The installation of thermal insulation on the building’s roof showed good technical, economic and environmental performance, compared to GCPVS, and proved to be attractive and competitive among the other scenarios. All simulated actions resulted in an annual emission reduction of 14.8 tCO 2 e. When calculating the building’s generation potential, it was found that it could be considered an NZEB and PEB.

Suggested Citation

  • Elder Ramon Chaves da Costa & Rogério Diogne de Souza e Silva & Victor de Paula Brandão Aguiar, 2025. "An Analysis of Energy Efficiency Actions and Photovoltaic Energy in Public Buildings in a Semi-Arid Region: The Requirements for Positive Energy and Net-Zero Energy Buildings in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-26, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:11:p:5157-:d:1671570
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/11/5157/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/11/5157/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raniero Sannino & Laura Ronchetti & Silvia Di Turi, 2024. "Pathway to Zero-Emission Buildings: Energy and Economic Comparison of Different Demand Coverage by RES for a New Office Building," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Alexander Ly & Maarten Marsman & Eric†Jan Wagenmakers, 2018. "Analytic posteriors for Pearson's correlation coefficient," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 72(1), pages 4-13, February.
    3. Farizal Farizal & Muhammad Aqil Noviandri & Hanif Hamdani, 2024. "Sustainability Development through a Nearly Zero Energy Building Implementation Case: An Office Building in South Jakarta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-21, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Yujin & Zhang, Zhitao & Chen, Yinwen & Fan, Shaoshuai & Chen, Haiying & Bai, Xuqian & Yang, Ning & Tang, Zijun & Qian, Long & Mao, Zhengxuan & Zhang, Siying & Chen, Junying & Xiang, Youzhen, 2025. "Correction of crop water deficit indicators based on time-lag effects for improved farmland water status assessment," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    2. Csordás, Adrián & Füzesi, István, 2023. "An Empirical Evaluation of Information Sharing's Impact on Profitability; Evidence from the Solar Sector," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 15(3), September.
    3. Díaz-Vallejo, Mauricio & Peña-Peniche, Alexander & Mota-Vargas, Claudio & Piña-Torres, Javier & Valencia-Rodríguez, Daniel & Rangel-Rivera, Coral E. & Gaviria-Hernández, Juliana & Rojas-Soto, Octavio, 2024. "Analyses of the variable selection using correlation methods: An approach to the importance of statistical inferences in the modelling process," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 498(C).
    4. Duan, Wenjie & Yu, Xinhang & Wang, Zichuan & Chai, Xue, 2024. "Financial resilience-focused program: A single group pretest–posttest intervention to change financial risk perception among teenagers in an ethnic minority poverty-stricken area in China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. Hui Liu & Feng Wang & Jian Yu & Yong Pan & Chaoju Gong & Liang Zhang & Lin Zhang, 2024. "DBDNMF: A Dual Branch Deep Neural Matrix Factorization method for drug response prediction," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(4), pages 1-22, April.
    6. Cheng Jin & Zhifeng Jia & Ge Li & Lingke Zhao & Yuze Ren, 2024. "Effect of Soil Moisture Content on Condensation Water in Typical Loess and Sandy Soil," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Zhiyun Zhou & Haoling Liao & Hua Li, 2023. "The Symbiotic Mechanism of the Influence of Productive and Transactional Agricultural Social Services on the Use of Soil Testing and Formula Fertilization Technology by Tea Farmers," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-26, August.
    8. Liu, Jiaying & Zhang, Jun & Tian, Qingfeng & Wu, Bei, 2025. "Resilience evaluation of multi-feature system based on hidden Markov model," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    9. Morales Martínez, Jorge Luis & Segovia-Domínguez, Ignacio & Rodríguez, Israel Quiros & Horta-Rangel, Francisco Antonio & Sosa-Gómez, Guillermo, 2021. "A modified Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA) approach for multifractal analysis of precipitation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 565(C).
    10. Shugang Li & Hui Chen & Xin Liu & Jiayi Li & Kexin Peng & Ziming Wang, 2023. "Online Personalized Learning Path Recommendation Based on Saltatory Evolution Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-19, June.
    11. João Vitor Leme & Wallace Casaca & Marilaine Colnago & Maurício Araújo Dias, 2020. "Towards Assessing the Electricity Demand in Brazil: Data-Driven Analysis and Ensemble Learning Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, March.
    12. Huayong Zhang & Shuang Zheng & Tousheng Huang & Jiangnan Liu & Junjie Yue, 2023. "Estimation of Potential Suitable Habitats for the Relict Plant Euptelea pleiosperma in China via Comparison of Three Niche Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-22, July.
    13. Jian Chen & Jiajun Zhu & Xu Qin & Wenxiang Xie, 2023. "Reducing Octane Number Loss in Gasoline Refining Process by Using the Improved Sparrow Search Algorithm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-21, April.
    14. Jianwei Bu & Ziyong Sun & Rui Ma & Yunde Liu & Xulong Gong & Zhao Pan & Wenhao Wei, 2020. "Shallow Groundwater Quality and Its Controlling Factors in the Su-Xi-Chang Region, Eastern China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-18, February.
    15. Xiaohui Xu & Ke Deng & Jibin Yang & Pengyi Deng & Xiaohua Wu & Linsui Cheng & Haolan Zhou, 2025. "Jointed SOH Estimation of Electric Bus Batteries Based on Operating Conditions and Multiple Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-24, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:11:p:5157-:d:1671570. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.