Research on an Energy-Efficiency Improvement Roadmap for Commercial Buildings in China

To reduce the building sector’s approximately 30% contribution to primary energy consumption and global warming, several developed countries have formulated Building Energy Efficiency Improvement Roadmaps (BEEIRs) to guide future improvements in building energy performance. In early 2014, the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development initiated the Building Energy-Efficiency Improvement Program of research activities on which a Chinese BEEIR will be based.

This paper describes the research supporting development of China’s BEEIR for commercial buildings with a focus on the series of surveys of institutions and experts conducted to obtain information on current and expected future conditions and the analysis of the survey results. We compare the proposed BEEIR targets for new and existing commercial buildings and present recommendations regarding the BEEIR’s implementation.