Operational carbon emission and economic analysis of green technology implementation at rest and service area

Abstract

Malaysia has committed to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 45% in the year 2030. With increasing urbanization and living standards of people in Malaysia, there is certainty a substantial increase in human activities especially in mobility via networks of highway. Rest and Service Area (RSA) is one of the important facilities in highway network that operates 24 hours and utilizes significant amount of energy from its daily activities. Therefore, substantial amount of carbon is emitted from the RSA due to electricity usage, water consumption, solid waste and wastewater, as well as fuel consumption from staff commuting and transportation of goods. The aim of this study is to set a baseline target for energy reduction of RSA. In achieving this, the sources of GHG emissions were identified and measured in terms of carbon dioxide equivalency (t CO2-e) in order to quantify the amount of GHG emitted from its sources. Next, the setting of reduction target were evaluated based on carbon and cost impact of suggested counter-measure. The collected data and questionnaire survey was analysed using Microsoft Excel software. From the overall analysis, it was found that average amount of CO2-e emissions from electricity consumption contribute about 89% of carbon release for each selected RSA. Therefore, in order to overcome the substantial amount of carbon, LED, solarpowered LED on street light and motion sensor were proposed. Overhead Bridge Restaurant Ayer Keroh which labelled as RSA 2 was chosen as a case study in order to estimate the cost of investment in 20-year period of time prediction. For technology in retrofitting street light, it has shown that solar-powered LED produces longer payback period with 8.89 years compared to LED which is 1.23 years. However, solarpowered LED reduce 51% more carbon emission compared to LED technology. Unlike RSA building, using LED and motion sensor technology shows a shorter payback period with an average of 1.71 - 2.36 years. Although the installation cost for motion sensor is higher than LED technology, the reduction of carbon emissions from motion sensor was found to be 14.28% more than that of LED technology. As conclusion, this study projected that the combination between solar- powered LED for street light and LED or motion sensor technology for RSA building will reduce carbon emissions by about 40% from its baseline year in just 10 years after implementation. Therefore, this study has optimized to set a reduction target of 40% from its baseline by the year 2030.