Energy consumption and GHG emission scenarios of a university campus in Mexico

This study estimates energy consumption and related GHG emissions for the buildings and facilities of the main university campus at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The campus has a built area of 1.3 km2. Based on the strategic plan of growth, a scenario analysis for 2020 was also developed estimating baseline and mitigation scenarios that include energy efficiency technologies and solar water heating. To estimate energy consumption, a representative sample of buildings and facilities by category was selected in order to develop level I and when possible level II energy audits. The study was complemented with results of level III energy audits performed in previous studies for some buildings. The bottom-up results from energy audits were compared to the electricity bill for the whole campus. We found that lighting represents 28% of total energy use, followed by special research equipment 17%, refrigeration 14%, and water heating that includes the Olympic swimming pool 9%. If energy efficiency technologies are applied for retrofitting and considered for new buildings in lighting, refrigeration, air conditioning; and a hybrid system (solar-electric-LPG) is used for water heating, energy consumption could be 7.5% less than in 2011 and CO2 emissions 11.3% less than in 2011.