Integrated Design and Development of Energy–Efficient Buildings

This paper gives a concise review of recent design and development of energy-efficient buildings and sustainable architecture. The most important breakthrough in these areas was probably the high-efficiency solar cell that has achieved a conversion efficiency higher than 40 %. To take advantage of the high conversion efficiency, hybrid or cascade solar systems composed of different types of energy systems have been proposed and/or investigated. A survey of green and innovative building envelope and illumination designs such as bi-directional thermodiodes for both winter heating and summer cooling applications, soap bubble-filled greenhouse envelopes, fiber-optic solar lighting systems, and high-power LED lamps was also included in the review. These technologies can be easily integrated for improved energy efficiencies in different categories. In addition, new designs and ideas that can be implemented to improve the energy efficiency and/or reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environment impacts of new or existing buildings are proposed and discussed.