Open access decision support for sustainable buildings and neighborhoods

The nano energy system simulator NESSI

authored by

Sarah Eckhoff, Maria C.G. Hart, Tim Brauner, Tobias Kraschewski, Maximilian Heumann, Michael H. Breitner

Abstract

The urgency of climate change mitigation, rising energy prices and geopolitical crises make a quick and efficient energy transition in the building sector imperative. Building owners, housing associations, and local governments need support in the complex task to build sustainable energy systems. Motivated by the calls for more solution-oriented, practice-focused research regarding climate change and guided by design science research principles, we address this need and design, develop, and evaluate the web-based decision support system NESSI. NESSI is an open-access energy system simulator with an intuitive user flow to facilitate multi-energy planning for buildings and neighborhoods. It calculates the technical, environmental, and economic effects of 14 energy-producing, consuming, and storing components of the electric and thermal infrastructure, considers time-dependent effects, and accounts for geographic as well as sectoral circumstances. Its applicability is demonstrated with the case of a single-family home in Hannover, Germany, and evaluated through twelve expert interviews.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Computer Science for Business Administration

Type

Article

Journal

Building and environment

Volume

237

ISSN

0360-1323

Publication date

01.06.2023

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Environmental Engineering, Civil and Structural Engineering, Geography, Planning and Development, Building and Construction

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 13 - Climate Action

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2023.110296 (Access: Open)