Cost-benefit analysis on green building energy efficiency technology application: A case in China

• Incremental costs of the EETA account for a large proportion of total incremental costs of green buildings.
• The EETA on green buildings can bring incremental economic and environmental benefits.
• Financial evaluation results of the EETA have not market investment potential.
• The most sensitive factor on financial evaluation results of the EETA is power price.

In order to initiate economic evaluation of green buildings and foster their development, this article conducts the cost–benefit evaluation of energy efficiency technology application (EETA) on green buildings in China. Based on the economic evaluation theory of construction project (EETCP), the authors first establishes the theoretical framework system of cost–benefit evaluation of the EETA on green buildings and then develops the analysis methods of incremental costs and quantitative calculation formula of incremental benefits of the EETA on green buildings. Using these theories and methods, this article takes the Wanke City project in China as a study case, conducts the cost–benefit empirical analysis of the EETA on green buildings, and draws the following important conclusions: (1) the incremental costs of the EETA account for a large proportion of total incremental costs of green buildings, which are more than 50% in this case; (2) the EETA on green buildings can bring incremental economic benefits, as well as environmental benefits; (3) if only consider the incremental economic benefits of the EETA on green buildings, the financial evaluation indexes show green buildings do not have market investment potential; (4) among all the factors influencing the financial evaluation results of the EETA on green buildings, power price is the most sensitive factor, followed by the unit incremental costs, and the lifetime has the smallest influence.