Energy-efficient renovation of residential districts: Cases from the Russian market: Dissertation

The energy-efficiency of Soviet-era residential districts in cold urban Russian regions is poor. It could be improved by renovating buildings to be more energyefficient and by reducing the losses in the related energy infrastructure. This dissertation deals with the energy-efficient renovation of such Russian districts. The idea of holistic district renovations is introduced, including both renovations of the buildings and modernization of the related energy and water infrastructures. Based on case studies, solutions are presented and analyzed for renovating upscale Russian residential districts into more energy-efficient ones. Holistic renovation concepts were developed both for individual apartment buildings and for typical residential districts. For the II-18 Soviet-standard type building, the energy saving potential was up to 68% for heating energy and up to 26% for electricity. In the district considered, using different district modernization scenarios, up to 72% of the heating demand and up to 34% of the electricity demand could be saved. CO2-equivalent, SO2-equivalent, and TOPP-equivalent (tropospheric ozone precursor potential) emissions, as well as particulates of the different district energy production scenarios, were also analyzed. In view of CO2-equivalent and TOPPequivalent emissions in the case district, changing a CHP plant from natural gas to biogas would be favorable. Considering also SO2-equivalent emissions and particulates, only the most advanced energy production scenarios could be recommended. The costs of different renovation packages for the type apartment building varied between 125/m2 and 200/m2, depending on the extent of the selected renovation package. Repairing the external walls formed around 35-40% of the total costs in all renovation packages. If the whole district was renovated (both the buildings and the related energy and water infrastructures), the costs per inhabitant varied between 3,360 and 5,200. The costs per inhabitant of additional alternatives, including renewable energy production solutions, were over 6,090. In addition, business models for such district renovations were analyzed. Developing a completely new business model for the Russian district renovations may be needed, since none of the identified models as such is suitable. Since some ESCO (Energy Service Company) activities have been realized in Russia, adapting modified Western ESCOs with well-defined financial guarantees could work in Russia.