Economic and air pollution effects of city council legislations on renewable energy utilisation in Tehran

Abstract

Regarding the application of renewable energies, their infiniteness and no pollutant production are two important reasons for the universal acceptance. In this issue, calculation of the initial capital cost and the payback time are of crucial importance. Considering the significance of air pollution problem in the metropolis of Tehran and its related challenges, the Iranian government has been required to apply renewable sources. This research deals with the investigation of environmental and economic aspects, implementation of Tehran City Council Legislation (TCCL) considering the provision of 10–20% of required energies from new energies in buildings which were given permission in 2014. A large amount of the energy is consumed for different purposes such as water heating and to provide this need, a solar water heater (SWH) can be applied. In fact, by implementation of TCCL, the annual profit obtained by exporting extra natural gas to the neighbouring countries is 210,939.25$, which is a result of preserving 421,878.5 m3 natural gas. Furthermore, production of pollutants such as CO2, SO2, and NOx reduced by 3045.40, 14.540, and 11.111 tons, respectively. Hence, reduction of environmental costs was calculated as 150,956.25$. Eventually, calculation of payback time for implementing SWH was obtained as 17 months.