Green Energy Efficient Schools for Albania 2015-Case Study
The Albanian government’s commitment to sustainability, the country’s favorable climate for renewable energy initiatives, and an overall enthusiasm for education among its citizens make Albania an ideal environment for a thriving “green schools” movement. With investments from both the international community and the Albanian government, the country is well positioned to transform education, generate employment opportunities, and boost GDP by engaging in a greening process in its schools. A series of changes to improve energy efficiency, air quality, indoor/outdoor facilities, and other design elements will:
1. Improve health, safety, and comfort conditions;
2. Provide uninterrupted electricity in schools;
3. Generate 220,000 new jobs; and
4. Increase GDP by US$880 million.
These achievements will also pave the way for Albania to launch a solar industry nationwide and become a leader in the green schools movement regionally. Sustainability Solutions Initiatives evaluated the opportunities, challenges, impacts, and costs for making Albania’s more than 3,300 school buildings safer, healthier, and more energy efficient and sustainable learning environments. Currently, Albania’s schools—particularly those in rural areas—suffer frequent power outages because they have limited access to a national electric grid that manages only a 60 percent reliability rate. Overall, however, the school buildings themselves have foundations that are well suited to energy efficiency with some basic modifications. While major improvements are needed in some areas to make the schools both energy efficient and compliant with Albania’s new EU-based standards for educational facilities, if implemented properly, the amount of resources needed to power the schools will be significantly lower than would be used by
standard building renovations. With that in mind, the ASU research team conducted a comprehensive study, which involved a literature review; software-based modeling for various energy, comfort, and impact scenarios; cost-data gathering and analysis; and evaluations of the results. The study is detailed in the following report.
[embeddoc url=”https://aea-al.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/AlbaniaGreenSchools-FinalReport.pdf” viewer=”google”]
