Net Zero Energy Buildings: Expense or Investment?

With the objective of reducing the heavy consumption of building sector, sustainable policies around the world promote, for the future, the construction of zero-energy or nearly zero-energy buildings. Higher investment in efficient technologies for energy saving and exploitation of renewables, however, can cause doubts about the real convenience of these "new generation" buildings. Based on the analysis of a case study under development, this paper demonstrates that a zero-energy building represents an affordable investment cost, especially if integrated with photovoltaics. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of 2nd International Conference on Advances in Energy Engineering (ICAEE).