SPECIAL SESSION ORGANIZER

Low Energy Buildings: Zero-net-energy Mission

Dr. Frederic Miranville
University of Reunion, France

Abstract

The increase of the greenhouse gas effect has for consequence the global warming of the earth, and consequently important modifications of the climate. It has been clearly stated that the observed increasing rate of the CO2 in the atmosphere is due to human activities and in particular to the means of production of energy. Kyoto protocol has indicated the objective to reduce the world emission of greenhouse gases of 5.2% in comparison with 1990 data. It is thus important, a large part being associated with the energy consumption of buildings, to improve their thermal conception and to promote their structural potential to produce electricity. Passive solutions are in particular required for the bioclimatic conception of building envelopes. Using such technical solutions, the construction of low energy buildings is possible. In addition, developing efficient systems to produce renewable energy, such as PV panels, offers the possibility to obtain zero-net-energy buildings. With the development of high performance building envelopes, equipped with efficient systems, powerful solutions can be elaborated to protect environment. This session is dedicated to the recent development in the field of zero-net energy buildings, and aims to present an overview of the associated world research.

Biography of the Special Session Organizer

Dr. Miranville obtained his Ph. D at University of Reunion, in 2002. He is a professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Technology of Reunion and develops research about passive technical solutions at the Building Physics and Systems Laboratory. He obtained his certification to lead research in 2009, with recent work about the thermal performance of complex passive and active walls. He is the author of several papers in the field of reflective insulation and the thermal modelling and experimental validation of building envelopes. He is a collaborator of Pr. Bojic, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Kragujevac (Kragujevac University), and developed a building simulation code dedicated to the performance of building envelopes. He also recently started research about phase change materials, with the collaboration of Pr. Medina from the University of Kansas.

Submissions

Please email all submissions to frederic.miranville@univ-reunion.fr by April 15, 2010. Authors MUST include their full contact information in the email.