Policies and People | Solar Decathlon India: Pushing real estate to go green - Hindustan Times
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Policies and People | Solar Decathlon India: Pushing real estate to go green

Feb 06, 2023 10:37 AM IST

The decarbonisation of the real estate sector is key for India to attain its net-zero goals. But India doesn’t have enough workers to design and build climate-resilient buildings. Solar Decathlon India trying to bridge this gap.

In the 2023-24 Union Budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman increased the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana's budget by 66% to over ?79,000 crore — a commendable push for the government's affordable “housing for all” mission. It is a praiseworthy step because housing is not just about providing shelter, it raises the quality of life because it generates conditions congenial to achieving other objectives such as health, sanitation, education and employment.

Homes and workplaces are our first defence against the impacts of the climate crisis, such as heat waves, storms, and floods. India needs climate-resilient, net-zero-energy and water buildings to achieve our 2030 and 2070 goals. (Shutterstock) PREMIUM
Homes and workplaces are our first defence against the impacts of the climate crisis, such as heat waves, storms, and floods. India needs climate-resilient, net-zero-energy and water buildings to achieve our 2030 and 2070 goals. (Shutterstock)

But in a climate crisis-hit world, having just a house will not be enough. Houses must be climate-resilient and carbon-neutral.

"It was heartening to see the green growth priority in the Budget, especially because it is linked to India's Panchamrit [five pledges] goal of net-zero by 2070. However, it misses out on the opportunity to begin serious decarbonisation of buildings and the real estate sector, which accounts for a third of India's emissions," said Prasad Vaidya, director, Solar Decathlon India or SDI. (More on this later).

"Homes and workplaces are our first defence against the impacts of the climate crisis such as heat waves, storms, and floods. We need climate-resilient, net-zero-energy and water buildings to achieve our 2030 and 2070 goals. Perhaps the ?79,000 crore for the PM Awas Yojana can be integrated with the green growth priority to decarbonise new construction and make all new housing climate resilient," he added.

Climate-resilient buildings: Slow movement

While India is rapidly adding to its building stock, the movement for climate-resilient and net-zero buildings is yet to gather pace. There are several reasons for this: Policy gaps and the lack of implementation of the existing energy and building codes. But a key reason for this tepid interest in green buildings is also fundamental: India does not have enough trained professionals (white and blue-collar workers) to build climate-resilient and net-zero buildings.

An estimate SDI did in 2019 showed 500,000 graduates every year in courses related to the building sector (architecture, civil engineering, mechanical). But the number of people who, back in 2019, could design net-zero buildings was around 50.

And this is what Vaidya, who has over 25 years of experience working on energy policy, energy efficiency programme development, and net-zero-energy building projects, and his team at SDI are trying to change.

SDI, modelled on SDI US (Solar Decathlon US), is conducted by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) and the Alliance for an Energy-Efficient Economy under the aegis of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum. The department of science and technology, Government of India, supports it.

Recently, I spoke with Vaidya to understand SDI, what it aims to achieve, and the reason behind the construction industry’s unenthused approach to net-zero and climate-resilient buildings.

Solar Decathlon India

SDI is a graduate and post-graduate-level competition that enables multidisciplinary student teams to explore affordable building solutions that are innovative, forward-looking, resilient, net-zero-energy-water buildings for real building projects by partnering with the industry.

These designs have to be innovative, affordable, practical, and market-ready. Students are assisted with online self-learning modules and expert mentorship during this year-long challenge. There is also constant and consistent engagement with IIHS faculty.

"From 2017-19, I was at CEPT University as a professor, and three batches of my students participated in Solar Decathalon US. They reached the finals and were part of a project for net-zero buildings. But Solar Decathalon US did not have a climate change focus. But I saw the connection between what students were doing and what was needed in India, and I also saw how it affected the students in the way they approached the problem and the learning that was happening," Vaidya told me.

Once he realised the potential of SDI, Vaidya decided to bring the concept to India because he felt that India's current architecture and engineering curriculum had not been able to address the issue of net-zero and climate-resilient buildings and bring awareness. In addition, the faculty of colleges are also short on information on building climate-resilient buildings.

"India has no curriculum content for students to learn the fundamentals of net-zero buildings. They don't have access to experts. So, at SDI, we are building a series of learning modules, which students who participate in the competition have to complete," Vaidya added. SDI provides expert, professional-grade simulation for students to test their ideas during the design. In addition, SDI brings industry partners and technical resources. Finally, the students work on a live project.

"We need to change students and industry. So, we reach out to developers and tell them that the students will work on a design (net-zero energy and water design) for free. This is being done to engage developers. If nothing, they get an awareness of solutions," says Vaidya. SDI also tries to place alums into these firms so that the net-zero-enabled people are part of the industry.

SDI, modelled on SDI US, is conducted by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements and the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy under the aegis of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum. The department of science and technology, Government of India supports it. (Photo credit: SDI)
SDI, modelled on SDI US, is conducted by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements and the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy under the aegis of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum. The department of science and technology, Government of India supports it. (Photo credit: SDI)

But the most heartening aspect of the SDI process is students' interest. SDI was launched in 2020 and had 75 teams. This year, SDI has 154 teams, and they come from across the country and are multidisciplinary.

Why SDI insists on a multidisciplinary team

SDI pushes for multidisciplinary teams because the solution to the problem they are trying to solve — low-energy, water-resilient, and affordable buildings — is not an architectural or engineering problem. It also deals with finance, the understanding of the landscape, the climate, and the people. Then a fair amount of business sense is required for this problem to be solved.

"SDI is not only about improving the performance of buildings, it is also about responsibility, affordability and other social elements required for building design," Vaidya adds.

As part of the SDI process, students work on six types of buildings based on the country's needs. While it has offices and residences, students also focus on climate-resilient educational buildings and construction worker housing. These houses must be thermally comfortable, climate-resilient, have net-zero energy and water, and be dismantlable with zero waste. And then there is resilient community shelter, but these buildings also have to have dual use (how they must be used during non-emergency months).

Construction material manufacturing needs to change

"There are very few owners or developers who insist on net-zero buildings or super-green buildings: 99% of the real estate is built not even to the energy codes we have," says Vaidya.

Also, the current way materials are manufactured in our country, steel, cement, and fired brick, are the most significant contributors to embodied carbon. Therefore, India needs electric furnaces powered by clean energy, cement replacement products, and eco-friendly bricks.

We need a larger approach by changing the kinds of materials we are putting into buildings and looking at newer ways of combining materials that can provide the strength and durability we are looking for without having embodied carbon.

"Unfortunately, buildings are not cars or appliances where they are made and mass-produced. So just having a solution doesn't mean that it will change the market and, therefore, we end up with three kinds of policies, one where we have codes that lifts the bottom of the market (everyone has to follow the code); on the other end of the curve you have rating systems where leaders sort of push the boundary and you get recognition for doing the right things, and in the middle of the segment — if you want to lift the market, you need to have the right kind of incentive programme and labelling programmes," says Vaidya.

India's climate education policy also needs to be recast.

"Along with engineers who can build net-zero buildings, we also need to train blue-collar workers and the unorganised sector to understand climate challenges and how to build resilient buildings. This is important because they will put these buildings together, put the window hinges," says Vaidya.

"That is the next challenge SDI is trying to work on in the next phase."

The views expressed are personal

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    KumKum Dasgupta is with the opinion section of Hindustan Times. She writes on education, environment, gender, urbanisation and civil society. .

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