Exergy Analysis in Low Carbon Technologies - The Case of Renewable Energy in the Building Sector

In this paper, the availability of different Low Carbon Technologies (LCT) is examined using the method of Exergy Analysis. LCT utilization plays a significant role in the Urban Environment. In many areas, as in construction industry, in fuels and "conventional" energy production, in renewable energy sources (RES), and in transportation there is a focus on technologies that offer the greatest carbon-saving potential. RES offer different LCT as biomass-local electricity and heat generation, geothermal, hydro energy, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal electric (high-temperature generation), solar water-heating collectors, tidal energy, wave energy, and wind power. Continuously increased energy consumption over the last decades in all sectors indicates that a wider LCT utilization is needed. An initial analysis is presented and an availability analysis is been implemented in order to identify whether there is room for more improvement based on the plan for a cost-effective contribution to carbon saving in short and longer term. The ultimate aim of the present study is to analyze the exergy utilization of LCT in order to gain insights of their efficiency