Tackling Climate Change with Drones用无人机应对气候变化

It was a cold January night in 2021 when Amir Ashrafizadeh heard the shouts. The drone operator was conducting an audit1 of a 15-storey residential building on Queen Street in Toronto， capturing more than 1，500 thermal and visual images. The process was going smoothly—until a confused tenant called the police.

2021年1月一个寒冷的夜晚，阿米尔·阿什拉菲扎德听到叫喊声。在多伦多的女王大街上，这位无人机操作员正在对一幢15层的住宅楼进行能源审计，其间拍摄了1500多张热成像图和可见光图像。审计过程很顺利，直到一位不明状况的住户报了警。

“I didn’t blame him，” says Ashrafizadeh. “It was two in the morning， and he saw these flashing lights outside his window and some guy on the ground with a remote control.” Happily， Ashrafizadeh’s paperwork was in order， so when the police arrived， he says， “they realized I wasn’t some creep.”

“我没有责怪他。”阿什拉菲扎德说，“当时已经凌晨两点，他看见自家窗外灯光闪烁，楼下还有个手拿遥控器的人。”所幸，阿什拉菲扎德手续齐全。他说，警察到了之后，“他们意识到我不是什么坏人”。

Far from it. Ashrafizadeh is the senior operations manager for QEA Tech， a Markham2， Ont.-based startup that uses drones to conduct energy audits of building envelopes—the spaces from the interior walls outward to the cladding， roof and glazing that make up the structure’s exterior. Window leaks， cracks and poor insulation can result in the overuse of heating and air-conditioning systems.

阿什拉菲扎德当然不是坏人，他是基亚科技公司的高级运营经理。这家位于安大略省万锦市的初创公司，主要业务是利用无人机对建筑围护结构进行能源审计。围护结构是自建筑内墙向外延伸到建筑外部结构的部分，而建筑的外部结构又由外墙覆层、屋顶和玻璃构成。窗户漏风、有裂缝、隔热效果差会导致供暖和空调系统的过度使用。

By identifying those issues and quantifying the resulting energy loss， the aim is to help building managers improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. That night at the Queen Street apartment building， Ashrafizadeh found nearly 150 areas of concern.

发现以上问题并量化由此造成的能源损失，旨在帮助建筑管理人员提升能源效能，减少碳排放。在女王大街为住宅楼进行能源审计的那个晚上，阿什拉菲扎德发现有将近150个点位需要关注。

Toronto’s buildings are responsible for 58 per cent of the city’s greenhouse gas （GHG） emissions， slightly above the global average. A significant portion of that comes from energy loss through the building envelope， making audits and retrofits essential for a city that plans to be net zero by 2040.

多伦多市内建筑的温室气体排放量占整个城市的58%，略高于全球平均水平。其中很大一部分排放量源于建筑围护结构的能源损失。因此，这个城市要想在2040年前实现净零排放，能源审计和建筑改造必不可少。

“We’re going to have trouble meeting our climate targets if we don’t fix our buildings，” says Peyvand Melati， the CEO of QEA Tech. “An energy-efficient heating and cooling system is great， but if the building envelope is leaky， then all that efficiency literally goes out of the window3.”

“如果不修复建筑物，我们就难以实现气候目标。”基亚科技公司的首席执行官佩万德·梅拉蒂说，“高效节能的供暖和制冷系统固然好，但是如果建筑围护结构出现裂缝，那所谓的效能也就真的从窗口溜走了。”

Traditional audits rely on blower door tests， which pressurize each floor to measure air leakage. But these audits can be intrusive and costly and require weeks to complete. By contrast， QEA Tech drones are sent on pre-programmed flights in the morning and at night to measure a building’s perform-ance at different times of day.

传统的能源审计依靠风机门测试，通过增加每个楼层的气压来检测空气泄露情况，但是这种方法既扰民，成本又高，而且往往需要数周时间才能完成。相比之下，基亚科技公司的无人机会按照预设程序早晚飞行，检测建筑物一天当中不同时段的性能。

Equipped with high-resolution thermal and visual cameras that capture thousands of images， a single drone needs less than three hours to collect data from a one-million-square-foot4 building. The images are then uploaded to the company’s proprietary AI software， which creates a 3D model of the building that is accurate up to a few centimetres. This precision not only allows Melati’s team to pinpoint cracks and moisture penetration， but also to quantify the amount of energy lost.

一架配备高分辨率热成像相机和可见光相机的无人机可以拍摄数千张图像，面积为100万平方英尺的建筑物，只需不到3个小时便可收集完数据。拍摄的图像上传到公司专有的AI软件中，随即生成该建筑的三维模型，能够精确到几厘米。这种精确度不仅可以让梅拉蒂的团队精准定位裂缝和渗水点，还能将能源损失量化。

“What makes us unique is how we’re able to translate these issues into actual dollar figures，” says Melati， an electrical engineer by training who established himself in the cleantech sector through the success of his previous IoT and solar ventures. “There’s always been a perception in the industry that there’s a very long payback time for retro-fits. Now， we can run through all the different scenarios for retrofit options and accurately identify savings.”

“我们的独特之处在于能够将能源损失问题转化为实实在在的金钱数额。”梅拉蒂说。他是一名受过专业培训的电气工程师，通过之前在物联网和太阳能领域的成功，奠定了自己在清洁技术产业内的地位。“业内一直有一种看法，认为改造的投资回收期限很长。现在，我们可以模拟所有改造方案，精准地算出节省的能源成本。”

Since launching， QEA Tech has completed energy audits of more than 500 buildings around the world， including 42 public libraries in Brooklyn. Their findings have shown that fully upgrading the building envelope not only lowers greenhouse gas emissions， but can also reduce energy costs by as much as 80 per cent. However， even just replacing all the windows on a highrise can cost millions， so building managers often use the findings to target the upgrades with the highest return on investment.

自成立以来，基亚科技公司已完成全球500多座建筑的能源审计，其中包括布鲁克林的42座公共图书馆。他们的研究结果表明，全面升级建筑围护结构不仅可以减少温室气体排放，还能降低高达80%的能源成本。然而，即使只是更换高层建筑的所有窗户也要花费数百万美元，因此建筑管理人员经常参考研究成果来锁定投资回报率最高的升级方案。

Data-driven decisions will become all the more necessary considering much of Canada’s building stock comes from the 1980s and ’90s—before the establishment of LEED5 standards—and will still be in use in 2050， the country’s net-zero deadline. “If we want to meet those objectives， we need to not only build new buildings better，” says Peter McArthur， a lender and expert on cleantech ventures at the Royal Bank of Canada. “But in a greater order of magnitude， we need to retrofit the huge inventory of existing buildings to make them more efficient.”