Energy-Efficient Architectural Design Integrating Renewable Energy for Community Resilience in the Peruvian Amazon
Benjamin Angel Flores Zavala, Bruno Benjamin Bermejo Paredes, Rodolfo Alonso Policarpo Bernal, Doris Esenarro, Jesica Vilchez Cairo, Karina Milagros Alvarado Perez, Adán Acosta-Banda, Luz Angela Castillo TrejoBuildings in climate-vulnerable regions face critical challenges in reducing energy demand while supporting environmental and social resilience. In the Peruvian Amazon, off-grid riverine communities experience energy insecurity and seasonal flooding, threatening both the built environment and cultural continuity. This research presents a non-built architectural case study for an Indigenous community-based ecotourism lodge in Loreto, Peru. The methodology combines culturally informed passive bioclimatic strategies with design-stage quantitative calculations based on secondary sources, architectural programming assumptions, and a ten-year SENAMHI meteorological dataset (2014–2024). The proposed photovoltaic microgrid comprises 52 bifacial N-Type TOPCon modules (31.72 kWp) and a 286.3 kWh LiFePO4 battery system. Under the base demand scenario—defined by lighting loads, 180 standard outlets, an outlet simultaneity factor of 0.8, and an effective evening-use period of 5 h/day—the system is projected to cover modeled demand under average-month solar conditions. However, rainy-season performance remains conditional when bifacial gain is excluded, so the system is interpreted as preliminary off-grid sizing rather than evidence of continuous off-grid operation. Compared with a 30 kW diesel-generator baseline, the photovoltaic-battery configuration projects an 84.3% annual OPEX reduction. The design also estimates 570 L/day of biogas from a 2.0 m3 biodigester, 233,600 L/year of potable water savings, and proposes 152 Calycophyllum spruceanum and 15 Ceiba pentandra trees for NbS-based stabilization. These design-stage estimates suggest a reproducible research-by-design workflow for preliminary environmental, energetic, and socio-cultural evaluation of off-grid Amazonian ecotourism infrastructure.