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30. Nov 2009 - International Class Meeting in Wuppertal
Abstract
Nearly one hundred experts on buildings from across the world met in Wuppertal. From 5 to 9 October they met in two working groups: the first was “Task 40 Toward Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings” and the second was “Task 41 Solar Energy and Architecture”. The two working groups are based in the Solar Heating & Cooling Programme of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Today the two groups met for a joint public presentation event. Dialogue between the two international research networks took place in the Pauluskirche (St. Paul’s church) on the University of Wuppertal campus.
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In recent years, buildings and settlement projects have been implemented in Germany and around the world which are devoted to fully offsetting their running energy consumption or the associated CO2 emissions as part of an annual balancing. There are numerous names for this: the zero-energy house, plus energy house, zero-emission house, net zero energy building, zero carbon or carbon neutral building, equilibrium building, and so on. As part of a project run by the International Energy Agency (IEA) called “Towards Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings”, methodical work has been carried out and demonstration buildings evaluated with these aims in mind. The University of Wuppertal with its department of building physics and technical building equipment (Bauphysik und Technische Gebäudeausrüstung, b+tga) is the national representative for Germany. The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology supports this activity as part of its EnOB (Energy-Optimised Construction) research initiative.
Another IEA project called “Solar Energy & Architecture” started at the end of 2008 and is dedicated to the improvement of solar energy systems and building design. The objective is to achieve synergy effects between energy-saving measures and architecture. At the same time solar energy systems should become more established in construction practice in existing and new buildings. In Germany, this work is being accompanied by the Berlin University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, HTW Berlin) and the Fraunhofer ISE.