Downscaling of the emissions related to energy usage in buildings: High spatial resolution to evaluate future decarbonization policies in the city of Boston

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master_Longo_Martina_2021.pdf (2.81 MB)

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Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis
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Date

2021-12-13

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Major/Subject

Energy Engineering

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Degree programme

Nordic Master Programme in Innovative and Sustainable Energy Engineering (ISEE)

Language

en

Pages

50 + 3

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Abstract

Large cities are responsible for considerable quantities of greenhouse gases and air pollutants released in the atmosphere. In particular, the City of Boston attributes 71% of the total community-wide greenhouse gases emissions to buildings energy activity. Thus, urban buildings greenhouse gases and air pollutants emissions modeling is essential for such large cities, and it is usually performed in literature via bottom-up approaches. However, these methods involve the gathering of significant amount of data, which is often limited by the availability of detailed information. This paper proposes an innovative downscaling methodology to estimate the city’s buildings-specific energy consumption and related emissions at high spatial resolution; these estimates originate from national surveys and local data, and narrow down to the building level. The results are also forecasted in future scenarios of space heating electrification in buildings, covering the next 30 years, and visualized in 100 m x 100 m spatial cells grids to evaluate their efficacy on the city. The presented electrification measures allow significant emissions reductions and would considerably improve the city’s air quality. Nevertheless, the carbon neutrality goal by 2050 might need additional policy implementation to be achieved, such as the electrification of water heating systems. The results are scrutinized and possible solutions that would lead to decarbonization are discussed. In addition, the methodology presented in this study can be applied to other cities, as it is only limited by the level of accuracy of the available data.

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Supervisor

Jarvinen, Mika

Thesis advisor

Eckelman, Matthew J.

Keywords

climate, downscaling, buildings, emissions, electrification

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-2021121910858

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