EUROPEANS ARE BETTER THAN US

publication date: Oct 16, 2008

The energy-conscious American traveling in Europe can easily feel humbled by the enormity and modernity of Europe's energy efficiency culture. 

Cruising past the City of Copenhagen, Denmark, I was struck by the gigantic wind turbines of the world's largest offshore wind farm towering from the sea like a file of H.G. Wells' conquering Martian machines wading the English Channel.

Driving along Germany's North Sea coast near Cuxhaven, I was amazed at the forest of turbines harvesting the ocean wind and fascinated by the fact that driving south into the heartland these wind turbines thin out but still are visible across the landscape.

Europe's energy culture is perhaps the greenest, however, in that piece of the social fabric that consumes the most - buildings.

At more than one large building in Frankfurt, I was confused and then irritated as I discovered one escalator and then another that appeared to be out of service. Then I stepped onto one and it began to move. It started up only when its energy gobbling motion was needed. Why, I wondered, don't we have this in the United States?

In my hotel room in Hannover, I was disgusted to flip the switch on the wall inside the door and find that the lights didn't work. Then I saw the slot on the wall, slipped in the plastic keycard I had just used to open the door and the room was filled with light. What a clever way to make sure lights, TV, heating and air conditioning will not keep sucking energy when the visitor is out for the day.

Feeling like an energy primitive who had just wandered into the world of tomorrow, I had to concede what no American wants to admit - Europeans are better than us, at least in energy efficiency.

The EU's Directive
Going into effect in January 2009, for example, will be the European Union's Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings, requiring all sales or leases of new homes to come with energy performance certificates. And some countries, such as Denmark, Britain and Germany, are way ahead of the game.

Germany has required energy or heating certificates for construction of new buildings since 1995. Under the 2007 Energy Conservation Regulations, that requirement was extended to the sale or leasing of existing buildings.

There are good reasons why primary energy consumption in the European Union in 2005 was 4.1 tonne of oil equivalent (toe) per capita versus 8.5 for the United States. Among them is, according to the World Watch Institute, that "the average building in the U.S. uses roughly a third more energy than its German counterpart." And, Americans consume 2.4 times as much energy at home as do their western European counterparts.

The Passive House
"The biggest difference is that Europe is focusing on energy conservation and energy efficiency, and that topic is almost nonexistent so far in the U.S.," says Katrin Klingenberg, director of the U.S. Passive House Institute in Urbana, Ill. "There's not even an efficient energy code binding nationwide. The 2006 International Energy Conservation Code has been suggested, but that's approximately comparable to what they had in Europe in 1996, and since that time Europe has tightened up a lot."

A passive house is one built to the rigorous Passivehaus standard originated in Germany two decades ago. It requires energy consumption just 10 percent of that in comparable existing buildings. The standard is based on principles of high levels of thermal insulation, high air-tightness, use of the sun, energy recovery from ventilation, energy saving domestic appliances and use of renewable energy sources. Since the first Passivhaus buildings were built in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1990, some 10,000 such buildings and homes have been built in Europe, Klingenberg says.

"The last I heard, the European Union is shooting for Passivehaus standards to be code by 2015," she says.

In the United States, meanwhile, Klingenberg says four passive houses have been built so far, one in Urbana, two in Minnesota and one in Berkeley, Calif. More are under construction or planning in Massachusetts, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Oregon. Passive house technology will also be employed in an apartment building in Ohio.

"It's very interesting to look at the parallelism of the developments in Europe and the U.S.," she says. "A decade ago, Europe had only about 10 units, so we are trying to catch up. I think that energy has been subsidized and kept on the low end here, and in Europe, people started feeling the price crunch much earlier. On the cultural and political end, I don't think anybody even questioned global warming in Europe. Germany, for example, has always been a leader in making the Kyoto Protocol a reality, while the U.S. decided in 2002 that it wasn't worth it."

According to Trans Scan magazine, a publication of the Western Australian government, if Europe could eliminate energy wasted through inefficiency, it would not only cut the continental energy bill but also reduce CO2 emissions by twice what is needed for Europe to satisfy the Kyoto Protocol. With buildings consuming the largest share of that energy, the European Union has put even more focus on efficiency in everything from HVAC services and appliances to building materials and recycling.

A Concrete Example
Both efficiency and recycling are commonplace elements in the thinking of European designers and builders. Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC), for example, is not only energy efficient but so recyclable that "if you grind it up and eat it you won't get sick," says Sylvester Schmidt, CEO of Xella Aircrete North America Inc. in Atlanta, Ga. He is not serious about suggesting that anyone do that, of course, but he is serious about the benefits of this building material that already has a 70-year track record in Europe. The material is just gaining a foothold in the United States.

The aerated concrete, based on tobermorite, or calcium silicate hydrate, derives its strength from being autoclaved in a pressurized steam chamber. Because 35 percent of AAC is air, it is light enough to save energy during transportation. Its cellular structure makes for energy efficiency 10 times greater than aggregate concrete and as much as three times greater than brick, according to the European Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Association. Because it is a product of all natural materials, it is easily recycled.

While about 20 percent of all walls in Germany are made of it, however, its market penetration "across the pond" is maybe a hundredth of a percent, says Schmidt. Still, he says, it has been used in more than 100 hotels now, a similar number of schools and quite a few larger buildings, mostly in the southeast.

"Now we suddenly have a demand for the product," he says. The construction industry is conservative, and changing building codes to accommodate the new is a long process, Schmidt says, but because of AAC's green attributes and other advantages such as durability and fire safety, he expects applications to ramp up in the next four to five years.

Slowly Catching Up
The United States perforce will continue to go green on building energy, of course. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires 25 percent greater efficiency for light bulbs to be phased in from 2012 through 2014 with doubled efficiency required by 2020. There are the Energy Star ratings of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency and the LEED guidelines of the U.S. Green Building Council, and more rigorous requirements for compliance in federal buildings and tougher codes in some cities. California, as in many things, has taken a lead with measures such as its Title 24, Part 6, of the California Code of Regulations, also known as the California Building Standards Code. Under the code, energy compliance documentation must be submitted before building permits are issued for new residential construction or for additions of new conditioned floor areas for existing buildings.

For the most part, however, U.S. building energy efficiency does not have the force of law behind it.

"Europe is light years ahead of us," says Troy Davis, vice president with Room Energy, a keycard-based energy management company in Utah. "All of our technology is from Europe. It's unfortunate that the U.S. is not farther ahead on this."

An Innovative Solution
Room Energy is one of those green-building innovators pushing us ahead, using technology from EnOcean, a German company with offices in Utah and Massachusetts, to produce energy-control kits for hotel rooms. Their keycards are unique - they do not require wires or batteries. And, they generate their own power through "energy harvesters." The wall-mounted keycard slot is a "peel and stick" unit that can be placed by hotel staff. The energy needed for the card to send its signals comes from the simple mechanical act of slipping the card in and out.

Energy savings from having the lighting, air conditioning, heating or television powered only when the guest is in the hotel room has a three to five-year payback, according to EnOcean.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy estimates that such keycards can reduce hotel room lighting energy usage by 33 percent and HVAC energy consumption by 20 percent.