الفهرس 
CHAPTER 1Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Egypt is implementing various strategies to reduce energy use in the building sector, which significantly contributes to negative environmental impacts and CO2 emissions. The development of Buildings’ envelope retrofits has been a focus of policy and research agendas for the past decade as part of efforts to decarbonize the building sector. Despite being the most practical and widely adopted renewable energy source, photovoltaic solar systems may face a severe risk to their stability and potentially harm the environment. In this sense, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a recognized approach that reduces negative environmental impacts, and effects of the construction industry and avoids resource depletion. Thus, to assess the integration of photovoltaic systems with the building envelope, this research provides a novel approach that combines LCA with building information modeling (BIM). The methodology was authenticated by applying it to a campus office building, considering eight building envelope alternatives integrated with photovoltaic systems. The proposed method involves a retrofit framework that utilizes solar renewable energy technologies, which can interface with BIM software output, calculate annual energy consumption using DesignBuilder 6.1® BIM software, and semi-automatically apply the LCA method to a building Using One Click LCATM software. Results have compared the impacts of each alternative on the environment based on Photovoltaic systems specifications, quantity, and building energy reduction factors. The findings of this study underline the lack of LCA research on renewable energy focused on photovoltaic systems in Egypt and calls for a thorough investigation into the environmental performance of current systems using this method. A limited number of Egyptian materials and photovoltaic systems technologies have life cycle databases that can be integrated with the building retrofit life cycle process. Thus, it is recommended for future developments of a local Egyptian database of environmental materials performance ranking, considering the local materials construction process and all photovoltaic systems potentials.