Evaluation of solar energy generation performance of buildings using building information modeling

Buildings cause significant energy consumption and carbon emissions. In many studies in the literature, it is stated that buildings consume as much as 40% of global annual energy and emit approximately 30% to 33% of greenhouse gases. Population growth rate, urbanization, migration and natural disaster risks such as earthquakes increase the need for housing in our country as in many developing countries. The increase in the number of buildings, especially residential buildings, leads to an increase in energy consumption. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global electricity demand is projected to increase by 3.3% in 2024. The energy demand caused by rapid and uncontrolled population growth increases the demand for renewable energy sources such as solar energy. Increasing energy demand can be met through solar energy performance analyses of existing buildings in built-up areas and low-energy designs in addition to insolation analyses in areas to be opened for new construction. Such an approach requires the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in buildings. BIM software, with its analysis functions such as solar analysis, enables the determination of suitable areas to install solar panels in buildings and the calculation of the amount of solar radiation that the area to be paneled can receive. In this study, the solar energy potential of Artvin Çoruh University Borçka Acarlar Vocational School building was evaluated using Autodesk Revit BIM software. In the application, the amount of electrical energy (kWh) that the building can generate according to different orientations and different roof types and the annual gain from this production were calculated. The obtained results show that the BIM is a highly efficient tool for assessing the energy efficiency of buildings.