Energy Efficiency in Residential Construction: Risk Assessment

Abstract

The article analyzes aspects of energy efficiency in housing construction in the context of measures to increase the energy intensity of Russia's GDP. The analysis of the GDP energy intensity dynamics was based on an assessment of the prospects for the transition from unprofitable production of raw materials to the model of a “green” and “clean” low-carbon economy. An increase of the share of personal consumption provided by this economy should be financed by reducing the share of investments in fixed assets of GNP. Energy efficiency implies a fundamental reduction in the consumption of high-carbon generation resources and the use of the best available technologies for their extraction and processing. The authors come to the conclusion that GDP growth can be associated with both a decrease and an increase in energy intensity at the present stage. This is typical for a monopolistic energy efficiency model with a high risk of stagnation and regression in the economy. Such a “raw” and “unclean” model with a large-scale carbon footprint is determined by the maximum anthropogenic load on the environment. In these conditions, the developer needs to ensure a reduction in the cost of the constructed building, expressed in units of standard fuel. But there is only one outcome in a “resource-based” economy: real indicators of energy intensity, as a rule, differ from the calculated ones.