The building sector encompasses a diverse set of end-use activities, which have different energy use implications. The amount of energy used in a building for cooling, heating and lighting, is directly related to its design, orientation, the materials used, the occupants' needs and behavior, the function of the building and the surrounding climatic zone.
Most new buildings in Sub Saharan Africa (i.e., in tropical climates) are replicas of buildings designed in developed world (i.e., in cold and temperate climates) and do not take into consideration their climatic differences. Inefficient design and construction using energy intensive materials, combined with poor understanding of thermal comfort, passive building principles and energy conscious behavior, have led to energy wastage in buildings. As a result, buildings are heavily reliant on artificial means for indoor comfort: lighting, ventilation, cooling and to some extern heating.
Given that a large proportion of energy is used in buildings, the current energy crisis facing the region and can be addressed by reducing electricity consumption through proper energy planning and energy demand management.
This can be achieved by promoting energy efficiency and conservation measures through awareness campaigns, policy measures, training, capacity building, fiscal and financial incentives etc.
This project will help governments to establish energy consumption benchmarks for buildings and to create a climatic database to be used for passive building design. The project will also assist government in reviewing their building codes to include energy efficient standard. Awareness raising and capacity building in energy efficiency and best practices in the building sector will be promoted throughout the project implementation.
The project will explore and develop appropriate financial mechanisms to speed-up the adoption of energy efficiency measures in buildings. Technical advises on energy efficiency measures will be provided to ongoing government housing projects.
The funding provided by Global Environment Facility will be used to leverage additional resources from governments, development partners, financial institutions (national and international), private sector, for the implementation of the project.
The main stakeholders involved are the Ministries of Housing and Human Settlements, the Ministries of Energy, the Ministries of Infrastructures, the Ministries of Public Works, professionals from the building/construction sector, real estate developers, financial institutions, research institutions, architects associations, private sector and the civil society organizations, in the participating countries |
