Harnessing Satellite Technology for Urban Energy Efficiency

Buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of global energy consumption, making energy efficiency a top priority for governments, businesses, and city planners. However, identifying buildings with excessive heat loss is a complex challenge. Traditional energy audits rely on manual inspections or drone-based surveys, both of which are expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to scale.

City governments require precise, building-specific thermal data to effectively allocate funds and prioritize renovations. Simultaneously, construction firms and material suppliers need accurate insights to offer targeted energy-efficient solutions. The project's central challenge was to develop an automated, scalable solution that delivers actionable insights into urban heat loss, supporting cost-efficient retrofitting and CO₂ reduction efforts.

MELT-B (Monitoring, Estimating, and Simulating Loss of Thermal Energy in Buildings) is a cutting-edge, satellite-based solution that enhances energy efficiency by harnessing the power of Earth Observation data, artificial intelligence, and geospatial analytics. It efficiently maps and analyses heat loss in office buildings by processing high-resolution thermal imagery from space and integrating it with detailed building metadata, such as energy classes, footprints, and materials. This comprehensive heat loss analysis platform offers unparalleled insights into building energy performance, paving the way for targeted and effective energy-saving strategies.

Key features include thermal heat maps for urban-scale analysis, building energy benchmarking for retrofit prioritization, CO₂ emission estimates, and AI-powered models for identifying inefficient buildings. The project employs high-resolution satellite imagery like SatVu and thermal drones, coupled with AI-powered analytics for precise building segmentation, and cloud-based processing for scalable and rapid data delivery. User-friendly dashboards and API access ensure seamless integration into city planning tools and construction workflows, ultimately driving smart, sustainable urban development.

The results of MELT-B have been both promising and impactful. Initial pilot tests in Debrecen and Southampton effectively pinpointed high-energy-loss buildings, validating the system's remarkable accuracy and scalability. By eliminating the necessity for expensive field surveys, MELT-B enables faster, more scalable energy audits, transforming how cities assess energy efficiency. The platform generates actionable, data-driven renovation recommendations, empowering city planners to allocate resources with precision and monitor energy savings over time. This strategic approach not only optimizes retrofitting efforts but also fosters sustainable urban energy management on a broader scale.