Better building designs required to maximise solar power benefits: academic

Sri Lankan buildings must be designed better than in the past in order to take the maximum benefit out of solar power, according to a top architect who spoke recently at the Public Consultation on Rooftop Solar PV Development organised by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka.

“Most of our buildings are outdated. The way we place the windows is wrong; the way we orient the building is wrong. Why can’t we correct this and bring this out? If we do that, if we use energy-saving appliances and energy benchmarks, we can get 50 percent of a building solar powered,” University of Moratuwa Architecture Department Senior Lecturer Dr. Indrika Rajapaksha said.

She said that currently, while some buildings achieve over 50 percent solar-powered status, in some others, it is as low as 3 percent, due to obsolete building designs, which minimize the usage of natural light and solar power and use of power-hungry equipment.

“Yes development is needed but is this the way forward? The Energy Code, why is it not coming up even after a decade?” she questioned.

Dr. Rajapaksha said that unless efficient buildings, which maximize the contribution of solar panels, are designed, it won’t matter even if every inch of a badly designed building is covered with solar panels.

She noted that most engineers ignore this grass root problem when analysing the electricity problems in the country. “Our building energy indices are so high. In developing countries, they are at 120 kilowatt hours per square metre per annum. We are exceeding 400 in some of the buildings. Unimaginable,” she said.
She said that to adhere to the 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement on climate change, Sri Lanka will have to set milestones and achieve them.

“This is a global issue, a humanity issue. How did other countries go forward? Australia has a rating system, with milestones for 2010, 2020. Similarly, we can’t do overnight. We need to set milestones and achieve them,” she said.(CW)