Decarbonizing real estate portfolios considering optimal retrofit investment and policy conditions to 2050

Autor: Ivalin Petkov, Alicia Lerbinger, Georgios Mavromatidis, Christof Knoeri, Volker H. Hoffmann
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: iScience, Vol 26, Iss 5, Pp 106619- (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2589-0042
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106619
Popis: Summary: Retrofitting existing buildings is crucial for achieving Net Zero emissions. Institutional real estate owners play a key role because of their significant ownership, especially of large buildings. We utilize an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate cost-optimal decarbonization conditions for three Swiss real estate portfolios owned by a global institutional investor. We leverage a bottom-up optimization framework for building asset retrofitting, scaled to the portfolio-level, to study the effect of policy scenarios and implementations. Results indicate that achieving Net Zero necessitates significant investments, largely through thermal energy efficiency measures and low-CO2 energy systems, as early as possible to avoid locked-in emissions. Owners will be challenged to smooth long-term capital investments, pointing to a potential liquidity crisis. Consequently, hard-to-decarbonize assets are unable to reach regulatory benchmarks largely because of lingering embodied emissions. To lower transition risk, we recommend that policymakers move toward average CO2 benchmarks at the real estate portfolio-level, emulating automotive fleets.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals