Energy-efficient renovation of Moscow apartment buildings and residential districts

The majority of Moscow housing stock is built after World War II and need mod-ernization. This publication concentrates on energy-efficient and sustainable renovation and modernization of a selected Moscow housing stock. The emphasis is on technical solutions and their energy saving potentials and possible emission reductions. In addition, the publication includes an analysis of the non-technical issues and barriers in building renovation in Moscow. Relevant pilot visits are also presented. During building renovation existing and future criteria for sustainability should be taken into account. Sustainability criteria for energy-efficient renovations of Moscow apartment buildings and districts were developed based on criteria developed for new residential districts in Saint Petersburg. The criteria setting include criteria for planning structure/functional planning, surrounding terrain, buildings, transport solutions, waste disposal and energy supply. A typical Moscow residential district was selected to be analysed. The pilot district was estimated to contain of about 13,800 inhabitants in total, which is about 0.12 % of the total number for Moscow. The total building floor of the district is about 327,600 m² and the total roof area about 31,000 m². First, a state-of-the-art was formed of the energy performance, and water and waste management of the buildings and of the district. Then alternative energy renovation concepts reducing the environmental impacts of the buildings and the district were developed and analysed. The building renovation concepts, named Basic, Improved and Advanced, were adjusted in such a way that each of them result as an improvement from a previous one when it comes to the total annual energy demand. The basic concept refers to minimum, low-cost or easy-to-do renovation measures. The improved renovation concept outputs better energy or eco efficiency. The advanced renovation concept suggested the most progressive solutions. Based on the calculations, the building level energy saving potential was up to 68% for heating energy and 26% for electricity. In the district level, different energy renovation scenarios were analysed in terms of energy demand and emissions. The district scenarios were also named Current, Basic, Improved and Advanced. Considerable energy savings could be achieved in the considered district with different district modernization scenarios, up to 37% for the electricity demand and up to 72 % for the heating demand. As for the emission analyses, switching from natural gas to biogas would result in lower of CO₂-equivalent emissions while increasing SO₂-equivalent emissions and particulates. A better solution would then be to produce energy from renewable technologies such as ground source heat pumps, solar panels, solar collectors or wind turbines which in comparison would result in fewer emissions in overall. Currently the average water demand in Moscow is 272 l/cap/day. With different solutions this could be dropped down even to 100 l/cap/day. Based on the current recycling and recovery rates of Moscow, the target of 78% recovery of waste was suggested. The main environmental impact from the waste management sector is the greenhouse gas emissions from the final treatment of the waste. In order to reduce the environmental impacts, a larger share of the waste should be recovered as material or energy.