%0 Journal Article
%A Steven J Konopacki
%A Hashem Akbari
%D 2002
%T Energy Savings of Heat-Island Reduction Strategies in Chicago and Houston (Including Updates for Baton Rouge, Sacramento, and Salt Lake City)
%2 LBNL-49638
%X <p>Initiative” to quantify the potential benefits of Heat-Island Reduction (HIR) strategies (i.e.,<br />shade trees, reflective roofs, reflective pavements and urban vegetation) to reduce coolingenergy<br />use in buildings, lower the ambient air temperature and improve urban air quality in<br />cities, and reduce CO2 emissions from power plants. Under this initiative, the Urban Heat Island<br />Pilot Project (UHIPP) was created with the objective of investigating the potential of HIR strategies<br />in residential and commercial buildings in three initial UHIPP cities: Baton Rouge, LA; Sacramento,<br />CA; and Salt Lake City, UT. Later two other cities, Chicago, IL and Houston, TX were<br />added to the UHIPP.<br />In an earlier report we summarized our efforts to calculate the annual energy savings, peak<br />power avoidance, and annual CO2 reduction obtainable from the introduction of HIR strategies in<br />the initial three cities. This report summarizes the results of our study for Chicago and Houston.<br />In this analysis, we focused on three building types that offer the highest potential savings:<br />single-family residence, office and retail store. Each building type was characterized in detail by<br />vintage and system type (i.e., old and new building constructions, and gas and electric heat). We<br />used the prototypical building characteristics developed earlier for each building type and<br />simulated the impact of HIR strategies on building cooling- and heating-energy use and peak<br />power demand using the DOE-2.1E model. Our simulations included the impact of (1)<br />strategically-placed shade trees near buildings [direct effect], (2) use of high-albedo roofing<br />material on the building [direct effect], (3) urban reforestation with high-albedo pavements and<br />building surfaces [indirect effect] and (4) combined strategies 1, 2, and 3 [direct and indirect<br />effects]. We then estimated the total roof area of air-conditioned buildings in each city using<br />readily obtainable data to calculate the metropolitan-wide impact of HIR strategies.<br />The results show that in Chicago, potential annual energy savings of $30M could be<br />realized by ratepayers from the combined direct and indirect effects of HIR strategies.<br />Additionally, peak power avoidance is estimated at 400 MW and the reduction in annual carbon<br />emissions at 58 ktC. In Houston, the potential annual energy savings are estimated at $82M, with<br />an avoidance of 730 MW in peak power and a reduction in annual carbon emissions of 170 ktC.</p>