The European Green Deal, the existing EU directives and the EC’s strategic vision ‘A clean planet for all’, set out a political initiative to make the EU climate-neutral and sustainable by 2050. The construction and renovation of structures require a large amount of energy and mineral resources, so the energy and resources needed for construction and renovation must be used efficiently.
In the EU buildings consume around 40% of energy, making this segment one of the most important in the energy transformation in all its dimensions: energy efficiency; further renewable energy (RES) deployment and management of smart grids. RES is the most promising source of energy for the expansion of domestic energy production, and therefore the further development of RES and the improvement of energy efficiency in line with the reduction of ambient air pollution.
A programme for the modernization of apartment buildings is being implemented in Lithuania. To increase energy efficiency, it is more efficient to modernize energy supply infrastructure covering the entire city block, not individual buildings. A digital twin is a digital copy of a site or object that reproduces its main existing or projected characteristics, allowing it to analyze and improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Such a virtual copy of the area is a suitable tool for allowing municipalities to prepare long-term infrastructure development plans, and for asset managers to manage assets more efficiently.
The completed digital twin would serve as a platform for modelling the indicators, targets, and methodology of the buildings to be updated (including modelling the entire life cycle of the building to meet the needs of the circular economy, as well as promoting greater digitization of the building economy and increasing its resilience to climate change).
As part of the project, we plan to create a digital twin of the district, where the concept of producing user integrates the energy production of AEI, maximizing the neutrality of the CO2 of the block.
Project funding:
KTU Research and Innovation Fund
Project results:
• District digital twin representing geometry of structures, details, geographical location (in the national coordinate system LKS 94) and energy properties was created for the modernization of the buildings.
• Evaluation methodology was created for the sustainable renovation of the district buildings and energy supply systems.
• The digital twin of the site – city block of residential buildings, was created. The digital twin contains 3D model mesh created with UAV photogrammetry and energy properties. These properties were used to create energy profile of entire district and renewable energy resources were suggested accordingly to enhance CO2 neutrality.
• The possibilities to install photovoltaic modules were analysed considering landscape, vegetation, and influence of other objects. Also, economic, and financial calculations were performed.
• The possibility to install heat pumps in the site was analysed. Economic, and financial calculations were performed.
Period of project implementation: 2021-04-01 - 2021-12-31
Project partners: Lithuanian Energy Institute
