Union Ministry of Power and New & Renewable Energy announced various initiatives being taken by the Government of India towards energy efficiency in the building sector, as part of 'Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav'.
Context
Union Ministry of Power and New & Renewable Energy announced various initiatives being taken by the Government of India towards energy efficiency in the building sector, as part of 'Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav'.
About the Building Energy Efficiency initiatives
- The “Aiming for Sustainable Habitat: New Initiatives in Building Energy Efficiency 2021”, initiative is launched by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)
- The Government of India has set up the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in 2002 under the provision of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001.
- The mission of the Bureau is to assist in developing policies and strategies with a thrust on self-regulation and market principles.
- Its primary objective is to reduce the energy intensity of the Indian economy within the overall framework of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001.
- This will be achieved with the active participation of all stakeholders, resulting in accelerated and sustained adoption of energy efficiency in all sectors.
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- It aims to enhance energy efficiency in the economy, especially in the buildings sector.
- The building sector is the second-largest consumer of electricity after industry and it is expected to become the largest energy-consuming sector by 2030.
- Significance: Realizing its importance, it is being focused to improve energy efficiency across residential as well as commercial building establishments.
- These initiatives will help to enhance the energy-efficiency levels in residential buildings thereby leading to sustainable habitation.
The launched initiatives include:
- Code compliance approaches and minimum energy performance requirements
- The web-based platform ‘The Handbook of Replicable Designs for Energy Efficient Residential Buildings’ as a learning tool.
- Online Star Rating tool for Energy Efficient Homes.
- Training Engineers and Government officials on Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) 2017 and Eco Niwas Samhita (ENS) 2021)
Eco-Niwas Samhita (Energy Conservation – New Indian Way for Affordable & Sustainable homes)
- The Eco Niwas Samhita is developed by the Ministry of Power, New & Renewable Energy.
- It was developed to set minimum building envelope performance standards to limit heat gains and to limit heat loss to ensure adequate natural ventilation and daylighting.
- The code applies to all residential use building projects built on plot area ≥ 500 m2.
- The code has been developed for its adoption by the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) into building byelaws.
- Under the initiative, few tools have been developed for Building performance evaluation.
- These tools are resourceful with a simple and interactive interface to raise awareness and sensitize people in telling them for adopting energy efficiency measures in buildings and educate users with energy-saving potential, cost savings, and CO2 emission reduction.
- There are three different types of tools with different specifications for the use of common individuals and building professionals who want to exercise energy efficiency of various customizable options including analyzing the compliance status of the building design as per Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) guidelines and regulation.
Energy Conservation Building Code (Code), 2017
- The purpose of the Energy Conservation Building Code (Code) is to provide minimum requirements for the energy-efficient design and construction of buildings.
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