This paper compares the potential for building energy saving of various passive and active strategies and on-site power generation through a grid-connected solar photovoltaic system (SPVS). The case study is a student welfare unit from a university campus located in the tropical climate (Aw) of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The proposed approach aims to identify the most effective energy saving strategy for building retrofit in this climate. For this purpose, we modeled the base line of the building and proposed energy saving scenarios that were evaluated independently. All building simulations were done in OpenStudio-EnergyPlus, while the on-site power generation was carried out using the Homer PRO software. Results indicated that the incorporation of daylighting controls accounted for the highest energy savings of around 20% and 14% in total building energy consumption, and cooling loads, respectively. Also, this strategy provided a reduction of about 35% and 43% in total building energy consumption, and cooling loads, respectively, when combined with triple low-e coating glazing and active measures. On the other hand, the total annual electric energy delivered by the SPVS (output power converter) was 66,590 kWh, from where 48,497 kWh was supplied to the building while the remaining electricity was injected into the grid.

In this paper, the energy performance of a university campus in a tropical climate is assessed, and four mixed classroom buildings are compared using benchmarking methods based on simple normalization: the classic Energy Use Intensity (EUI), end-used based EUI, and people-based EUI. To estimate the energy consumption of the case studies, building energy simulations were carried out in EnergyPlus using custom inputs. The analysis found that buildings with more classroom spaces presented higher energy consumption for cooling and lighting than others. In comparison, buildings with a greater percentage of laboratories and offices exhibited higher energy consumption for plug loads. Nevertheless, differences were identified when using the people-based EUI since buildings with larger floor areas showed the highest values, highlighting the impact of occupant behavior on energy consumption. Given the fact that little is known about a benchmark range for university campuses and academic buildings in hot and humid climates, this paper also provides a comparison against the EUIs reported in the literature for both cases. In this sense, the identified range for campuses was 49–367 kWh/m${}^2$/year, while for academic buildings, the range was 47–628 kWh/m${}^2$/year. Overall, the findings of this study could contribute to identifying better-targeted energy efficiency strategies for the studied buildings in the future by assessing their performance under different indicators and drawing a benchmark to compare similar buildings in hot and humid climates.

This paper presents a technical, economic, and environmental analysis and optimization of the impact of the reduction of diesel fuel subsidy in the design of an off-grid hybrid power system (OHPS). The OHPS includes a diesel generator, battery energy storage system (BESS), and a solar power system (SPS). This impact will focus on the electricity production levels of each of the OHPS components according to the increase of the fuel price and the SPS size. The Bellavista community in Ecuador was selected as the case study for this work. In this South American country, the government has begun a gradual increase in the diesel fuel price until it reaches international prices. Fifteen scenarios of OHPSs were simulated, in Homer Pro software, considering three SPS sizes and varying the diesel fuel price in five values. The annual load profile for the simulations was built based on the information of a previous study in this community. The results showed that for lower fuel prices (USD$0.26/L and USD$0.35/L), the OHPSs worked mostly with their diesel generators with reduced use of their BESSs. However, there was a higher penetration of the power delivered from the SPSs and BESSs, with higher fuel prices (USD$0.44/L, USD$0.53/L, and USD$0.62/L). These OHPSs considerably reduced their CO₂ emissions compared with the standalone diesel generator scenario.