Barriers to the adoption of energy-efficient technologies in the building sector: A survey of Brazil: Fid-Bau Portal

Barriers to the adoption of energy-efficient technologies in the building sector: A survey of Brazil

Cristino, T.M. / Faria Neto, A. / Wurtz, F. / Delinchant, B.

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Highlights • 27 barriers to BEE technologies are classified into six categories. • A survey is conducted with one thousand Brazilian experts. • Cluster and factor analysis confirmed the theoretical classification. • The factor analysis ranked the barrier categories by importance. • Barriers related to government and financial aspects are considered the most important.

Abstract The building sector is responsible for 51% of the electricity consumed in Brazil, and about 10% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. These numbers continue to grow, despite significant efforts made by the government to promote the adoption of building energy efficiency (BEE) technologies, which have not been widely adopted due to barriers. A systematic literature review revealed 27 barriers, classified into six categories, as being responsible for hindering the adoption of energy-efficient technologies. This article aims to verify whether such barriers make sense in the Brazilian context. In order to accomplish this goal, a survey among one thousand Brazilian professionals was carried out. The results are analysed by two multivariate techniques, cluster and factor analysis, validating these barriers as well as the proposed taxonomy for Brazil. The results also show that the two most important categories of barriers are Governmental/Political/Regulatory and Financial/Economic, showing that Brazilian society has high expectations that the government will be more active in this matter. In addition, the survey respondents gave insights into important points concerning technology, education, etc. that should be verified in a timely manner. These findings can assist government agencies, researchers, and experts to develop guidelines/strategies to overcome such barriers.