The number of Indians living in urban areas is expected to reach 525 million by 2025, which will also create the demand for 35 billion square metres of residential and commercial spaces by 2050. With an expected two-thirds of India's population residing in urban areas by 2050, the urban population is set to increase from 33 per cent to 50 per cent of the total population by 2050, accompanied by the addition of over 70 million new urban housing units in the next two decades. 

This rapid increase in built-up area is expected to result in a substantial increase in electricity consumption in buildings, escalating energy demand and emphasising the immediate need to optimise energy consumption in both upcoming and existing structures. 

“A third of India is urbanised. If, as projections suggest, it is going to double in the coming years, simple incentivisation and ratings-based certification of buildings cannot be the way forward. We need a broader policy with a wider reach for construction,” Shashwat Bandopadhyaya, professor of Urban Planning, CEPT University, told The Secretariat. 

An impact assessment report on energy efficiency measures for the year 2022-23 suggest a substantial increase in electricity demand, expected to escalate from 414 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year to 4,697 TWh per year by 2047. It is anticipated that buildings will contribute to 55 per cent of the total demand by that year.

Out of the total consumption of electricity in 2022-23, industry accounted for the largest share (41.16 per cent), followed by domestic (25.77 per cent), agriculture (17.67 per cent) and commercial (8.29 per cent) sectors. Interestingly, the domestic sector had the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.87 between FY2012-13 and FY2022-23. 

A 2023 Global Status Report on Building and Construction by UNEP suggested that emissions from buildings-related energy demand represented around 27 per cent of total global CO2 emissions in 2022 (or 21 per cent of global greenhouse gases emissions). A further 7-9 per cent is estimated as the outcome of the manufacture of construction material (i.e. concrete, steel, aluminium, glass and bricks). 

The Government of India, in collaboration with the Ministry of Power and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), has introduced and implemented several energy efficiency programmes targeting the building construction sector, encompassing both commercial and residential structures. These initiatives aim to enhance and optimise energy consumption within buildings, making them energy efficient and able to provide monetary savings while raising thermal comfort. 

In December 2022, Lok Sabha passed the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022, which sets out the parameters of a carbon-trading scheme and allows for the specification by the central government of an energy conservation and sustainable building code for large buildings. 

Gujarat In Focus

“With the doubling of size of our cities, we’d have buildings that not only consume more energy, but also contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. With this case clearly in foresight, we need to mainstream green buildings. These ratings of Gold, Platinum, etc., buildings cater to a miniscule number of the total buildings being constructed. Until this idea reaches out to all kinds of buildings, both existing and upcoming, we'll miss the point of having these ratings,” said Bandopadhyaya. 

The professor of Urban Planning was highlighting an apparent anomaly — while Gujarat has good green certification systems in place, it continues to perform below par in nationwide energy efficiency surveys.

Gujarat’s unimpressive performance in the nationwide State Energy Efficiency Index (SEEI) 2023, especially in the two sectors that consume the most energy, and are likely to witness exponential growth in the state —  industry and buildings — have put the spotlight on the paucity of policies to promote green buildings that the state has in place. It is one of the few states that has not notified the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) 2017, which is still in the drafting stage. 

SEEI, developed by BEE and the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), is a tool designed to track energy efficient initiatives in states and UTs, shedding light on the energy efficient performances of states across diverse sectors, aimed at evaluating endeavours and achievements. The index consists of 65 indicators, encompassing qualitative, quantitative and outcome-based measures, to track progress in the implementation of energy efficient policies, distributed across seven demand sectors: Buildings, industry, municipal services, transport, agriculture, discoms and cross-sector initiatives. 

In its annual report, not only has Gujarat remained a mere ‘aspirant’ or a ‘contender’, but has also witnessed a significant drop in its SEEI score over the past five years, culminating in 25.75 out of 100 in 2023, down from 36.5 out of 100 in 2022. The regress is especially evident in the building and industrial sectors (both by 20 points).

“Presently the whole idea is limited to workshops and academic discussions. We need to midstream and upstream the idea. Let it trickle down to affordable housing across the country, which needs to be both affordable and green. While we should continue incentive-based strategies, the main lack is of monitoring. Once builders have availed an incentive, they have no framework to be held accountable for the efficiency of the green features of certified buildings. Instead of upfront incentivisation, there should be a life-cycle incentive, wherein the incentive is staggered, based on the performance of a building over 20 years. A monitoring mechanism and its inculcation in the mandating of green certification can also help,” said Bandopadhyaya. 

The SEE index assigns buildings the largest split of score weightage (22 per cent), and asserts them to be the “second-highest contributor to total final energy consumption (TFEC),” which is expected to be the largest by 2030. 

After Maharashtra and UP, Gujarat is the third highest consumer of energy at 25,502 megawatts (MW), of which the domestic sector is the largest consumer, followed by agriculture and industry. 

Per capita commercial floorspace in Gujarat is expected to increase by almost six times between 2010 and 2050 and reach more than 4 metre square. A 2017 study found that without building energy policies, building energy consumption would grow rapidly in Gujarat, tripling between 2010 and 2050. In the same period, energy use in the state would grow by 15 times in commercial buildings, and by four times in urban residential buildings. The state is projected to see an increase in electricity consumption of 10 TWh to 20 TWh by 2030. 

(The third part in this series will focus on pathways towards a green building sector in the state)