Energy Savings of Green Roofs in Mediterranean Cities

Green roofs have shown great benefits to the built environment through both research, and application. One of the most important benefits is to increase the energy performance of the buildings. Green roofs can reduce energy demand due to the heat flow through the roof in the summer by more than 75% in some cases. In addition, they affect the reflected heat in the surrounding, humidity, and air quality in cities and urban areas. Nowadays the market offers many types of green roofs depending on their structure systems and type of vegetation. Moreover, different climates have different environmental and energy needs. One of the most populated areas are the Mediterranean cities. There are 285 Mediterranean cities with more than 126 million inhabitants. One of these cities is Tripoli, the capital of Libya. It has a unique built environment that has been responding to its climate through the ages. However, the city as other cities in the same region is failing to respond to the increase in energy demand due to the industrial revolution. This paper will investigate the contribution of the different types of green roofs in energy performance. To discover what gives Tripoli buildings more energy savings, it is important to recount these types’ vegetation and structure. Any differences might affect the roof energy performance. The research will use EnergyPlus simulation program to get results that support the green roof type choice for Tripoli climate. The aim of the research is to assume the best scenario in energy performance between the six types of roofs, namely extensive, semi-intensive, intensive, brown, white, and black.