A Novel Renewable Energy Approach for Cairo International Airport “CIA” based on Building Information Modeling “BIM” with Cost Analysis

Abstract

Renewable energy has become an increasingly cost-effective commerce preference for airports on account of technological advancement, market ripeness and public-sector investment. Airports have merits that promote the financial viability of on-site renewable energy, in particular for solar photovoltaics (PV). Solar energy systems can produce electricity in the day time when sun ray is available and it is cost efficacious. Solar system can be installed either fixed or adjustable to increase the amount of solar energy received via preservation the incident solar beam radiation normal to the system surface as possible. BIM has the ability to achieve a more energy-efficient building to improve the sustainability through energy analysis, solar analysis and wind analysis. PVsyst software was used to model the power generation and to design the whole PV system properly. Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Green Building Studio, during simulation, can give the annual wind Rose. This paper aims to apply analysis for PV system energy generation and its components to give initial cost, and annual cost as well as providing cost payback period which is an important indicator to define the amount of time it takes to recover the cost of an investment. Three cases of PV areas were considered, namely: building roofs, parking area, and PV land plant, in Cairo International Airport, by using the proposed selected PV cleaning methods. The system components were analyzed by PVsyst software. Wind Rose was obtained by Autodesk Revit and Green Building Studio. The results revealed that an annual energy generation of around 70 GWh/yr is expected, the initial cost is about 463 MEGP and the cost payback period is less than 6½ years.