Energy and Buildings

Buildings set the scene for our day-to-day studying and working at the university. More than we realise, their quality influences how we feel: they form our environment. At the moment, emissions from energy use are the largest contributor to UAntwerp’s climate impact (39% of the total footprint). The bulk of this footprint of direct energy use comes from the burning of natural gas on campus sites. The production of electricity used on campus accounts for a much smaller part of the footprint, as the university purchases 100% green electricity with Belgian certificates of origin.

UAntwerp’s patrimony is very diverse: from old heritage to new buildings meeting high-level standards. Our buildings also vary in the intensity of use, in comfort, and in energy needs. This diversity reveals a large scope for possible actions, quick wins as well as structural, long-term energy planning, that result in net gains on the long term. The core challenge for this domain is developing a sound and forward-thinking strategy for the UAntwerp building stock to be energy-neutral by 2050. The three pillars of this buildings strategy are (a) attaining a high degree of cost-effective energy efficiency, (b) installing the necessary equipment for harvesting energy from renewable resources, and (c) phasing out the use of fossil fuels. Given the long lifespan of buildings, our decisions today are already affecting the trajectory of the pathway towards having energy-neutral buildings by 2050. Representing our most important capital stock, this domain is a budgetary priority in UAntwerp’s climate strategy.

Milestones reached

• The Infrastructure Department developed the Terra platform to span the entire UAntwerp building envelope. The programme and database allow for ex ante simulations and, in a comparable manner, simulations of various possible infrastructural measures and investments. With the Terra platform, we can assess and compare possible investments in terms of impact on energy demand, related emissions, budget size as well as payback effects. All in all, it can provide a sound basis for decision-making on energy and infrastructure investments.
• A sample of UAntwerp’s buildings was screened in detail for all relevant energy parameters.
• Infrastructure for energy monitoring at a detailed level has been installed and is being operated.
• UAntwerp purchases 100% green electricity with Belgian certificates of origin.

Goals

• Develop a long-term strategy for UAntwerp’s infrastructure based on an open and organisation-wide discussion by 2024.
• Achieve climate neutrality by 2030 with a minimum CO₂-eq reduction of at least 75%. This will reduce emissions with 12,227.85 tonnes of CO₂-eq. Emissions from fossil fuel use in buildings are compensated at the determined rate. UAntwerp decides how to allocate these funds between external projects that capture CO₂ (e.g. reforestation) and by making its own investments in energy-neutral buildings.
• UAntwerp decides how to allocate these funds between external projects that capture CO₂ (e.g. reforestation) and its own investments in energy-neutral buildings.
• All fossil fuel use for heating the UAntwerp patrimony is phased out by 2050.

Actions

• Multifunctional use of buildings, clustering as many services and activities as possible to generate as little travel as possible. Stimulating more intensive and multiple uses of space.
• Investigating the possibilities of more efficient use of existing spaces in current buildings, starting with a concrete pilot project per type of space (offices, laboratories, storage, biobank facilities).
• Prepare to meet the obligations imposed by the Flemish government. It has been decided that by 2025, all large non-residential buildings must have an energy performance label. By 2030, these buildings must achieve a yet-to-be-determined minimum energy performance label. An energy audit will also become obligatory.
• The entire patrimony is screened (U-value of roof, walls and floors of 0.2 W/m²K, windows of 0.8 or 1.0 W/m²K). Insufficiently insulated buildings are identified. A master plan is drawn up to optimally insulate all buildings by 2050. The entire patrimony is also screened for electricity consumption (lighting, electrical appliances, technologies, etc.). Investments are made to optimise electricity consumption, the most energy-efficient versions are the norm for new investments.
• The university inventories all useful roof surface for the installation of solar panels and formulates concrete goals and a trajectory with intermediate milestones towards the optimal number of solar panels.
• In all concretely planned major renovation works, buildings are already brought to a 2050-proof level. This check with the long-term view is necessary to avoid lock-in effects, where investments remain lower than what is required because they take a too short timespan into account, resulting in a suboptimal investment trajectory.
• Make a strategy to engage building users (students, staff) to investigate which communication can induce which important behavioural changes with respect to energy use.
• Establish a rolling fund for energy efficiency under the umbrella of the climate fund, so that energy savings from efficiency investments can be harvested to serve for further investments.

Indicators

Table 1 presents an overview of the evolution of energy consumption between 2018 and 2021.[1]

The consumption of fuel oil has drastically decreased (-54.2%). Electricity consumption has decreased by almost 10%. Natural gas consumption on the other hand has increased by 2.8%. This is particularly due to an increase in natural gas consumption at CGB (Campus Groenenborger; and to a lesser extent at CDE (Campus Drie Eiken) and CMI (Campus Middelheim)).

Table 1: Consumption of energy between 2018 and 2021 based on Terra values

Table 2 translates the insights from Table 1 into the evolution of UAntwerp’s CO₂-eq emissions (in tonnes) between 2018 and 2021. The total CO₂-eq emissions decreased by almost 50%. As already mentioned in the introduction, this is largely due to purchasing 100% green electricity with Belgian certificates of origin. Despite the drastic CO₂-eq reduction, there is still a great need to invest in the reduction of electricity usage and/or for investments in renewable energy.

Table 2: Evolution of UAntwerp’s CO₂-eq emissions due to energy consumption between 2018 and 2021

A few other useful indicators include:

• Our own production of renewable energy in MWh;
• Utilised roof surface area suitable for solar panels in %;
• The funds that have already been specifically allocated to energy efficiency/renewable energy infrastructure investments today, as a share (in %) of the estimated remaining investment needed for the entire trajectory towards fossil-free infrastructure by 2050.
• EPC labels for all buildings by 2025;
• Energy audit;
• Investment plan and budget estimation for all campuses.

Challenges

The largest challenge clearly lies in the financing equation: how to get the necessary investments budgeted in a coherent way, when a middle to long-term vision or strategy is still absent? In order to achieve a fossil-free patrimony, all buildings must undergo a thorough energy renovation and further investments in renewable energy are needed. This will require significant financial resources that are unfortunately not currently available (the cost is estimated to be between 280 and 320 million euros). In other words, the goal of becoming fossil-free is not feasible with the current patrimony and available financial resources. Hence it is absolutely necessary to draw up a long-term strategy with regard to UAntwerp’s infrastructure. Strategic choices regarding the building stock can provide the necessary budgetary space to evolve towards a climate-proof university, that offers high-quality education and delivers scientific research of the highest level.

Besides establishing the finances and creating budgets, engaging with the behavioural aspects also poses substantial challenges. The question of how to raise awareness among building users about energy-relevant behaviour and how to stimulate them to change certain types of behaviour is not accompanied by further actions or by plans on how to engage building users. These behaviour aspects are an important piece of the energy puzzle. Also the question of how the university can make more efficient use of existing building spaces holds a lot of potential to reduce total energy demand against a fraction of the price of constructing new buildings, and yet this aspect remains underexplored.

[1] Note that the energy consumption at Blue App, UAMS and The Beacon is not included in the data.