Dissertation release: Energy renovations make more sense at the district than at a building level

Contents of the dissertation

The dissertation deals with how to improve energy-efficiency of Russian Soviet-era residential districts by renovating buildings to more energy-efficient ones and reducing losses of the energy infrastructure. The dissertation introduces an idea of energy-efficient holistic renovations including both renovations of the buildings and modernization of the related district infrastructure. The topic is dealt with from the perspectives of energy savings in buildings, district-scale energy demands and energy production emissions, investment costs, and business models.

Holistic energy renovation concepts were developed both for typical apartment buildings and for a typical residential district. In the district considered, using different district modernization scenarios, up to 72% of the heating demand and up to 34% of the electricity demand could be saved. In view of CO2-equivalent emissions in the case district, changing a CHP plant from natural gas to biogas would be favorable. If the whole district was renovated (both the buildings and the

related energy and water infrastructures), the costs per inhabitant would start from about €3,000.

Comparable Soviet-era buildings and residential districts, in need of renovations, exist extensively throughout Eastern Europe. Finnish experiences of cold climate building and energy technologies could be widely utilized there. The approach utilized in the dissertation to consider the energy-efficiency of districts rather than individual buildings could also be a reasonable trend more widely. This dissertation contributes a pioneering work since there is only a little international scientific literature related to energy efficiency of Soviet-era residential districts.

Field of the dissertation: Energy technology, energy renovation of residential districts

Doctoral candidate: Satu Paiho, M.Sc.(Tech). Born in Lahti 1967

Time of the defence: 12.12.2014 at 12 noon

Place of the defence: Aalto University School of Engineering, Building K1, Lecture Hall 216, Otakaari 4, Espoo

Opponent: Prof. Jan-Olof Dalenbäck, Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Energy and Environment, Sweden

Custos: Prof. Risto Lahdelma, Aalto University School of Engineering, Department of Energy Technology

Electronic dissertation: http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/science/2014/S72.pdf

Doctoral candidate’s contact information: Satu Paiho, VTT, PL 1000, 02044 VTT. Tel. +358 50 331 5160, Satu.Paiho@vtt.fi