Commercial buildings in India consume large amounts of energy through HVAC, lighting, and electricity systems. They offer opportunities for energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions through efficient designs, technologies, and retrofits. However, barriers include high upfront costs, lack of technical awareness, insufficient institutional support for bundling small projects, and unclear policies. Overcoming these barriers could realize annual savings of 8-10 lakh tons of CO2 through CDM projects in the commercial building sector in India.

1. Green Money for Green Building
Mr. Krishan Kumar Kapil1
Abstract
Commercial Buildings are very large energy users; they consume large quantities of
energy, depending on the facilities provided. In building the main energy consuming
systems are: heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); lighting, electricity (lifts,
etc.), facilities such as swimming pools, fuel for vehicles etc. They offer an opportunity
for large energy savings, thereby a great opportunity to implement energy efficient
measures, which could result in cost savings as well as the GHG reductions. These
reductions can qualify for Certified Emission Reduction (CERs) under CDM and can be
traded. This report analyses the scope, barriers and the potential of CDM projects in
construction industry in India with reference to current industry trends and
developments.
Introduction on Clean Development Mechanism
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), is outlined in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol of
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the text of which
was adopted at the United Nation's Conference of the Parties on 11th December 1997, and
entered into force on 16th February 2005. India ratified the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC, on
26th August 2002. Under the CDM, projects in developing countries that can be shown to reduce
emissions of greenhouse gases may obtain Certified Emission Reduction certificates (CERs), by
registering with the United Nations CDM Executive Board (EB). These CERs may be utilized by
companies and governments in industrialized countries to help them meet their agreed
greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments, and as such have a value.
Indian Buildings:
Commercial buildings are one of the fastest growing sectors of the Indian economy, reflecting the
increasing share of the services sector in the economy. Commercial buildings are very large
energy users; they consume large quantities of energy. The main energy consuming
systems are: heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); lighting and electricity.
The typical consumption pattern distributed buildings are as follows:
1. HVAC system: 50%
2. Lighting: 26%
3. Pump and motors: 16%
4. Other: 8%
Commercial buildings offer a great opportunity to implement energy efficiency projects by
introduction of new technologies, which can qualify for Certified Emission reduction
under CDM and can be traded. Energy efficiency improvements project activities to
reduce energy consumption on supply side / demand side by unto 15 GWh per year.
Energy conservation potential for Commercial Buildings
Large number of Options and technological interventions are possible in the Commercial
Buildings. The major energy consuming areas are HVAC (35-45%) and lighting
(20-30%). The numerous options for energy conservation are described below.
1
Business Consultant-CDM, Enzen Global

2. 1. Energy efficient building design
2. HVAC
3. Energy efficient and Day lighting
4. Motors and Pumps
5. Waste heat recovery/ Combined Heat and Power (CHP)
6. Power Factor Controls
7. Water conservation and recycling
8. Renewable Energy Technologies
9. Ground coupling Technologies
Building Design
There are six climatic zones in India and the building orientation as well as the baseline
for energy consumption will depend on the climatic zone. Energy efficient windows can
play an important role in energy savings. A significant reduction in energy demand is
possible if energy efficient glazing is combined with best orientation (for lighting),
opening area (for heat exchange) and building insulation (for increasing the resistance to
heat exchange) in the original design of the building.
BUILDING DESIGN
Compared to conventional buildings, green buildings consume less energy and water, preserve
natural resources such as land and materials, and provide excellent indoor environmental quality
Features Merits
Proper selection of site design for Reduce water use by 70 to 80
Landscaping Rainwater retention and onsite water percent
purification systems
Maximizing natural light and natural Low-cost way to save energy
Architectural design ventilation and optimize productivity and
comfort
Energy-efficient lighting combined Reduce energy consumption
with high-performance windows, by 40 to 50 %.
Envelope efficiency well-insulated walls and roofing,
heat avoiding paints etc
Heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)
The HVAC offers a vast opportunity for energy efficiency in the conditioned buildings.
HEATING VENTILATION AND AIR CONDITIONING (HVAC)
Features Merits
• Screw type chillers 0.650 KWhr/ton of chilling
Energy efficient • Similarly chillers with inbuilt compared to 1.3 KWhr/ton for
chillers VFDs (variable frequency centrifugal compressors
drives) for efficient at part
loads
Heat recovery Different types of energy recovery Recover up 80% of the energy
Ventilators ventilators for fresh air intake are from outgoing air
available
• It recovers the waste heat of Enhances the AC plant efficiency

3. refrigerant which otherwise is by 5 to 10% and provides an
Desuperheater put in the atmosphere through assured supply of hot water up to
condenser of the AC system 60 C
• Available from 5 ton onwards
with a payback period of less
than one year.
• Utilizes the constant Can save up to 50% of the
Ground coupled temperature available operating costs
systems • Pay back of 1to 2 years
• Suitable for both heating and
cooling
• Based on the two stages
IDEC technology cooling of ambient air. Best suited for hospitals etc where
(Indirect • Systems can be employed for 100% fresh air is required.
evaporative fresh air requirements in
cooling) conditioned space.
Lighting
Several energy efficient lighting technologies are available apart from the day lighting.
These include Compact fluorescent lights (CFL), Rare earth tri band (T-5) tube lights,
electronic chokes, Light emitting diodes (LEDs), fiber optics and a host of sensor
controls.
LIGHTING
Features Merits
• Best choice for the replacement of
Compact incandescent lamps. Saves almost 75 % of the
fluorescent lights • Initial costs are high, the life costs lighting energy
(CFL) are almost one third due to longer
life of these devices.
• Efficient tube lights when
compared to the normal T-12 tube
Rare earth lights.
triband (T-5) • Several sensor and timer controls
tube lights can also save lighting energy by • 50% energy savings
avoiding the lights when not • Low voltage starting,
needed. higher CRI, longer life
• Similarly the day lighting (also
through a solar tube) can reduce
the daytime lighting loads.
Light Emitting Offer the largest savings in the lighting energy demand as well as these
Diodes (LEDs) devices do not generate heat load for air-conditioning. Both LEDs and
fiber optic distribution for light are emerging technologies.
Properly selected combinations can provide optimum visual and lighting comforts along with
up to 70% reductions in the lighting energy demand
Other technologies

4. There are several other areas of energy savings and CO2 emission reduction with
upcoming technologies. The use of variable frequency drives in motors and pumping,
energy efficient motors, recycling of water through the Root zone system, rain water
harvesting, solar water heating, solar electricity generation through Building integrated
Photovoltaic systems (BIPV) and several emerging technologies can reduce energy
consumption as well as help mitigate CO2 emissions and other environmental hazards.
GHG Savings Potential
The total specific energy consumption for conditioned buildings in India is high. Based
on the above interventions, a large amount of energy can be saved in Commercial
Building. The studies available indicate that 20-40% reduction is possible under existing
scenario. Even if we assume a saving of 20-25% on the conservation side, these amounts
to a reduction of 2000 to 6000 tons of CO2 per year per building. The total reduction
based on these estimates will be in the range of 8 to 10 Lakh tons per year in the country.
Barriers in executing energy efficient projects
Technical Barriers
The initial high costs of certain interventions do not allow the implementation of these
technologies. Although long-term benefits are for sure, there is reluctance in the upfront
investments. There is also the identification of prevailing practices concept for
additionality.
Technological and awareness barriers
There is lack of general awareness about the technologies and the technical complex
cities associated with CDM project identification. Added to these is the high transaction
costs associated with individual CDM project of this scale.
Institutional barriers
The current design of the CDM is BARRIERS
resulting in high transaction costs Technical High Initial costs
to individual small-scale projects, Awareness Lack of technical awareness
even with the simplified modalities Institutional Lack of institutional
and procedures that have been infrastructure specially
developed specifically for small- ESCos
scale projects. However, the low Policy Lack of clarity on legal issues
carbon savings per small-scale project is making it difficult for such projects to derive
value from participating in the CDM. Building a project of several subprojects and
submitting it to the CDM Executive Board as one can further reduce transaction costs per
CDM project. This process is called bundling of small-scale projects. Bundling a number
of individual small-scale projects into one larger CDM project is one possible solution to
overcoming high transaction costs. Small-scale projects under the CDM will require the
creation of institutional capacity in country to help stakeholders and investors to identify
and bundle projects.

5. Projects may be bundled at the project design document, validation, registration,
monitoring, and verification stages if the combined CDM project activity does not exceed
the small-scale project limits.
A registered bundling organisation or agent can do bundling of small-scale projects.
Essentially, if projects are bundled, the owners of the system assign the right to claim the
CERs to a bundling organisation or agent. Except for the requirement that bundled
project cannot be larger than the requirements for small-scale projects, the restrictions to
bundling are quite limited.
Policy barriers
There is lack of clarity on legal issues and other strategic support from the Government
despite setting up the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and setting up very high
National Goals for Energy conservation..
Conclusions
Commercial Buildings are very large energy users; they consume large quantities of
energy, depending on the facilities provided. In building the main energy consuming
systems are: heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); lighting, electricity (lifts,
etc.), facilities such as swimming pools, fuel for vehicles etc. They offer an opportunity
for large energy savings. Energy efficiency offers a lot of improvement in the bottom line
as well as scope for GHG reductions and associated CDM projects. These CDM revenues
could be a win-win situation.
At present there is lack of awareness regarding the CDM process. There are concerns
about the small-scale nature of savings and associated high transactions costs. There is
need of ESCOs, which can implement and finance the projects availing the CDM project
benefits. It is estimated that the existing approved star Building in India offer a saving
potential of around one million tons of CO2 per annum, but till now very little efforts
have been made for availing CDM benefits. This analysis is also applicable to Large
Hospitals, Hotels and Housing complexes.