Prospects of energy conservation and management in buildings - The Saudi Arabian scenario versus global trends

The volume of construction work in the GCC countries is dramatically increasing, which poses challenges on energy demand and the environment. The building construction sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest and fastest in the GCC states. It is estimated that 2.32 million new homes are to be built by 2020 in order to meet the demand of growing population. This article provides a comprehensive picture of the initiatives and research progress in energy conservation and management in the Saudi Arabian building sector. Starting with a background of energy scenario, the article covers the policy-level measures and research and development activities reported so far, and compares the current situation with the global trends. This review reveals that even though there are promising research activities, policy supports and growing public awareness, the Kingdom has wide scope for further developments in order to ensure (through the utilization of its resources at their fullest potential) that all the viable state-of-the-art technologies for energy conservation and management in buildings are implemented. Accordingly, a consolidated outline of the key areas in the domain is presented, and many potential new research directions are proposed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.