IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i1p183-d1559996.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The State of the Art of Residential Building Energy Retrofits in Libya and Neighbouring Mediterranean Countries: A Comprehensive Review

Author

Listed:
  • Salwa Albarssi

    (Wels School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NB, UK)

  • Shan Shan Hou

    (Wels School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NB, UK)

  • Eshrar Latif

    (Wels School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NB, UK)

Abstract

With the increasing concern about global warming and future climate change, attention has been drawn to the need to reduce building energy use through improving buildings’ energy efficiency. Existing residential buildings constitute the largest percentage of energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions, and hence, offer significant potential for energy savings and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This review aimed to provide an in-depth analysis of current research on improving the energy efficiency of existing residential buildings in Libya and neighbouring Mediterranean countries, with a focus on research methods and tools utilised in this domain. This helped to identify potential areas of intervention to improve the energy efficiency of existing residential stock in Libya. Under identified themes, this study systematically analysed 44 publications of high relevance to the subject area found in Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. The results reveal that while energy retrofitting is a research area of interest in the region considered, studies in the Libyan context are limited. There is also limited attention to achieving net zero energy and embodied carbon reductions, specifically in the Libyan context. Moreover, some weaknesses were identified for most of the studies reviewed, including those in the Libyan context, related to the credibility and reliability of the energy models used in the various literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Salwa Albarssi & Shan Shan Hou & Eshrar Latif, 2025. "The State of the Art of Residential Building Energy Retrofits in Libya and Neighbouring Mediterranean Countries: A Comprehensive Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-22, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:1:p:183-:d:1559996
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/1/183/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/1/183/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:1:p:183-:d:1559996. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.