Retrofitting buildings to achieve emission reductions

 

Solar PV roof retrofit for office buildings (Hangzhou Urban and Rural Construction Committee 2021)

By retrofitting existing buildings, Hangzhou has reached its goal of reducing carbon emissions. According to the Hangzhou Urban and Rural Construction Committee (2021), Hangzhou has reduced 38,722 tonnes of carbon emissions and saved energy equivalent to 14,893 tonnes of coal through retrofitting public buildings. The public facilities that have been upgraded include municipal government offices, universities, secondary schools and social houses. The transformation consisted of installing photovoltaic power on the roofs, upgrading lighting systems, modifying air conditioning systems, installing energy monitoring systems and more.

The challenge remains how such retrofits can be extended to private and commercial buildings. For the non-public sector, undertaking energy efficiency retrofits is not always profitable. Firstly, the owner must pay the cost of retrofitting, and it may be impossible to live and work in the building during that time. Secondly, policy changes can bring risks. An example of this comes from the rooftop solar photovoltaic topic mentioned in a past Post:  The "Implementation Suggestions on Further Accelerating the Construction of Photovoltaic Power Projects in the City" published in 2022 introduced specific requirements for rooftop solar photovoltaic, and the first public building project fulfilling its criteria was not completed until February 2023 (Hangzhou News 2023), which left most of the previous rooftop solar photovoltaic projects facing retrofitting or demolition.

Solutions to this challenge are often in the form of government subsidies or mandatory policy implementation. However, given that this does not dispel doubts and may cause dissatisfaction, a better approach may be for the government to take the lead in retrofitting and demonstrating the benefits to attract private sector actions.