C o n s i d e r a t i o n o f S o l a r E n e r g y S o u r c e s a n d E n e r g y E f f i c i e n c y
749
CONSIDERATION OF SOLAR ENERGY SOURCES AND ENERGY
EFFICIENCY FOR HOUSING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS
Mustafa Ersalici
1
& Hasim Altan
1
1
Building Environments Analysis Unit (BEAU), School of Architecture, The University of Sheffield, United
Kingdom
Abstract
At the beginning of 20th century, the construction sector was improved more over even
though in this period there were two world wars which had damaged cities and buildings.
After the Second World War, there was a high range of house necessity. By this way,
new factories and buildings were built. Therefore, the use of fossil fuels as energy
sources was increased. On the other hand, the population of humanity was increased
year by year. As a result, all of these evaluations caused a big environmental impact.
During the last quarter of the 20th Century, scientists focused on the environmental
changes and the natural sources of the world, and dramatically they stated that there will
not be a good future in the world because of dangerous carbon dioxide emissions and
there will not be enough fossil fuels in the future. Thus, terminology of renewable energy
sources started to sound such as solar energy, wind energy, etc. According to these,
countries started to design more environmental friendly buildings and some were
designed as sustainable cities. Unfortunately, these developments have not occurred
effectively yet in the Mediterranean Islands. In this paper, Cyprus Island’s energy
demand and energy production types have been evaluated. The aim of this paper is to
demonstrate the understanding of the energy expenses and environmental impacts in
order to evaluate energy efficiency and renewable energy systems in housing for Cyprus.
Keywords: Renewable Energy Sources, Solar Energy, Energy Efficiency, Solar Housing,
Cyprus.
Introduction
Indeed, housing sector is one the biggest sectors worldwide. Housing is the main
necessity for humanity from the early ages. There were many stages of building a house
and in the early ages, natural materials were used as building materials. Until the middle
of 18th Century, it was continued in that way and cement was discovered and started to
be used as new construction materials. These evaluations continued and steel was
found in the last quarter of the 18th century.
At the beginning of 20th century, construction sector was improved more over.
Unfortunately, in this period, there were two world wars and these damaged cities and
buildings. After the World War II, there was a high range of housing necessity. According
to this, especially in Europe and the USA, most countries created new methods to build
more quickly and therefore industrialised production of buildings period started. Thus, it
means that the industrialised period started. By this way, new factories, buildings and
new transportation systems were built. On the other hand, the population of human
increased more impetuous than the previous centuries.
Conventional energy utilisation has brought out environmental impacts as global and
local level which is named “Global Warming”. Therefore, these environmental impacts
pushed governments to consider renewable energy sources which have almost zero
CO
2
emissions. The importance of renewable energy sources has become more
valuable by its low environmental impact because the environment is one of the basic
aspects in the sustainable developments.
Since the mid-20th century, there has been very fast enlargement in economic and
social scopes which caused a high range of energy demand. Production of electricity,
