How did we help NYU Abu Dhabi achieve energy savings of 30% when benchmarked against the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline? It all started with the IES Power Station Challenge, a challenge that focuses on creating sustainable built environments.

Want to know more about energy efficiency in construction projects? Read on!

What is the Power Station Challenge?

The Power Station Challenge is a challenge by our long-term partner IES, a world leader in intelligent sustainability solutions for the built environment. The challenge was launched to promote the IES software Virtual Environment (VE), which helps create sustainable development and construction projects. This is a software we at Alpin use to leverage our thought leaders in building physics to deliver the most insightful energy analysis to our clients.

The goal of the Power Station Challenge is to save 100 power stations from being built. We’re a big part of this. So far, Alpin’s Energy Modeling services, such as the NYU Abu Dhabi development project, have saved more than 100,000,000 Kilowatt-hours.

What does this mean?

Let’s use an example. If you take 30,000 cars and line them up bumper to bumper, enough to stretch them from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, they would emit over 44,000 tonnes of CO2. This is the equivalent of 100,000,000 kWh of energy, enough to power over 14,000 homes.

And that’s what we’ve helped our clients save. More specifically, this adds up to over $7.25 million per year, a number that is steadily increasing.

Energy Modeling is a vital part of our commitment to lowering the carbon footprint and maximizing our clients’ return on investment. Proper modeling optimizes a client’s construction budget.

How? Our clients lower consumption during the operational phase and we ensure the most cost-effective materials are utilized in a building’s façade.

Now, while MEP equipment can be very expensive, Energy Modeling allows us to simulate exactly where our clients can make savings.

Our Energy Modeling team also integrates Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), which is software that visualizes how air patterns affect a building as it flows past and can contribute to cooling strategies.

Plus, our team integrates services into life cycle analysis in order to help visualize the cost savings and investment profiles early in the project. This leads to higher ROI.

And that’s what we helped NYU Abu Dhabi do. But what was the project all about? Here’s what you need to know.

What was the NYU Abu Dhabi development project all about?

NYU Abu Dhabi, a liberal arts university, opened in 2014. Its campus is located on Saadiyat Island. The campus covers 450,000 square meters and reaches heights of over 50 meters.

And what was our role in this development project?

We were invited to conduct stage energy analysis. The goal was to ensure that the project would reach its energy savings goals and that it would comply with the local standard, Estidama PBRS.

This standard requires projects to be 12% above the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline. However, the project had already achieved this standard. Now, the goal was to achieve 25% above the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline to achieve a 2 Pearl rating.

How we achieved energy savings of 30% when benchmarked against the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline

So how did we achieve this goal… And more?

At Alpin, our mission is to be at the forefront of sustainable development and construction. That’s why we founded Alpin Innovation Labs, which is all about developing these solutions and transforming the construction industry. One of the solutions Alpin Innovation Labs offers is to help our clients use technology and software to meet ASHRAE requirements.

With the tools, systems, and knowledge we’ve developed in Alpin Innovation Labs, as well as using IES’ software VE to incorporate the ECMs, we helped the main contractor verify the parameters they set out in terms of u-value, lightning, and HVAC. We provided feedback on the HVAC and water system to determine potential energy and water consumption savings.

In the end, we were able to achieve energy savings of 30% when benchmarked against the ASHRAE 90.1 baseline.

The result?

NYU Abu Dhabi exceeded its goals and achieved a 2 Pearl rating.

How did our results support the Power Station Challenge?

What’s the result of the Power Station Challenge?

So far, the challenge has saved an amount of energy that equals 30 power stations.

Our NYU Abu Dhabi project, as well as other projects, have been crucial for achieving these results.

The thing is: These are the results energy efficiency in construction projects can help you get.

Want to learn more? Find out more about our Energy Model and BIM Integration services.