Energy Efficiency Indicators for Assessing Construction Systems Storing Renewable Energy: Application to Phase Change Material-Bearing Façades

Assessing the performance or energy efficiency of a single construction element by itself is often a futile exercise. That is not the case, however, when an element is designed, among others, to improve building energy performance by harnessing renewable energy in a process that requires a source of external energy. Harnessing renewable energy is acquiring growing interest in Mediterranean climates as a strategy for reducing the energy consumed by buildings. When such reduction is oriented to lowering demand, the strategy consists in reducing the building’s energy needs with the use of construction elements able to passively absorb, dissipate, or accumulate energy. When reduction is pursued through M&E services, renewable energy enhances building performance. The efficiency of construction systems that use renewable energy but require a supplementary power supply to operate can be assessed by likening these systems to regenerative heat exchangers built into the building. The indicators needed for this purpose are particularly useful for designers, for they can be used to compare the efficiency or performance to deliver an optimal design for each building. This article proposes a series of indicators developed to that end and describes their application to façades bearing phase change materials (PCMs)

Bullfighting extreme scenarios in efficient hyper-scale cluster computing

Data centres are quickly evolving to support new demands for Cloud-Computing services. Extreme workload peaks represent a challenge for the maintenance of the performance and service level agreements, even more when operation costs need to be minimised. In this paper, we first present an extensive analysis of the impact of extreme workloads in large-scale realistic Cloud-Computing data centres, including a comparison between the most relevant centralised resource managing models. Moreover, we extend our previous works by proposing a new energy-efficiency policy called Bullfighter which is able to keep performance key performance indicators while reducing energy consumption in extreme scenarios. This policy employs queue-theory distributions to foresee workload demands and adapt automatically to workload fluc tuations even in extreme environments, while avoiding the fine-tuning required for other energy policies. Finally, it is shown through extensive simulation that Bullfighter can save more than 40% of energy in the aforementioned scenarios without exerting any noticeable impact on data-centre performance.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación RTI2018-098062-A-I0

Monitoring of the “Energiewende” – energy efficiency indicators for Germany

The increasing number of energy and climate targets both at national and international level induces a rising demand for regular monitoring. In this paper, we analyse the possibilities and limits of using energy efficiency indicators as a tool for monitoring these targets. We refer to the energy efficiency targets of the German “Energiewende” and calculate and discuss several energy efficiency indicators for Germany both at the level of the overall economy and the main energy consumption sectors. We make use of the energy efficiency indicator toolbox that we have developed within the ODYSSEE database in recent years and find that there is still a considerable gap to close to achieve the overall energy efficiency targets in Germany by 2020. We also show that progress in energy efficiency slowed down between 2008 and 2012, i.e. compared to the base year of most of the German energy efficiency targets and find that energy efficiency progress in the industrial sector during the last decade has been especially slow. We conclude that improvements in energy efficiency have to speed up considerably in order to achieve the targets for 2020. Although the use of energy efficiency indicators is limited by data constraints and some methodological problems, these indicators give a deep insight into the factors determining energy consumption and can therefore complement the official monitoring process of the German “Energiewende” which only relies on highly aggregated indicators for energy efficiency

How to monitor sustainable mobility in cities? Literature review in the frame of creating a set of sustainable mobility indicators

The role of sustainable mobility and its impact on society and the environment is evident and recognized worldwide. Nevertheless, although there is a growing number of measures and projects that deal with sustainable mobility issues, it is not so easy to compare their results and, so far, there is no globally applicable set of tools and indicators that ensure holistic evaluation and facilitate replicability of the best practices. In this paper, based on the extensive literature review, we give a systematic overview of relevant and scientifically sound indicators that cover different aspects of sustainable mobility that are applicable in different social and economic contexts around the world. Overall, 22 sustainable mobility indicators have been selected and an overview of the applied measures described across the literature review has been presented

Green Economy Indicators

The chapter is an attempt to answer the question: how is the actual green economy implementation process underway to be measured? The answers were given firstly by the international organizations OECD, UNEP, Word Bank, Global Green Growth Institute, as well as the consulting company Dual Citizen. Also the author of this chapter proposed the Green Economy Index. There is a growing awareness concerning the need for international unification of the indicators used to measure a green economy. Existing indicators represented slightly different approaches and methodologies, based on their own definitions of the subject to be measured. The topic of green economy indicators is going to grow in importance in upcoming years. This will be connected with locating a green economy at the centre of regional and national development strategies.Wydanie współfinansowane ze środków Miasta Łodzi w ramach zadania “Współpraca z wyższymi uczelniami” – umowa 100/03/201

Green Economy: Regional Priorities

The article is dedicated to transforming the economy of Russian regions to a green economy, which is an essential factor for the sustainable development. This is important not only for Russia but the whole world because our country has the great natural capital and provides important environmental services that support the planet biosphere. Based on the analysis of economic, social and ecological statistical data and Human Development Index (HDI) we have shown that the development of Russian Federal Districts is very unbalanced and each Russian region has its own way to new economic model. For instance, it is necessary to increase the well-being in the North Caucasus Federal District, it is important to reach higher life expectancy at birth in the Siberian and the Far Eastern Districts. It is necessary to move from the «brown» economy to a green one by using the human capital (building a knowledge economy), by applying Best Available Technologies (Techniques), by investing in efficiency of use of natural resources and by increasing energy efficiency. The transition to a green economy will help to achieve social equity and the development of human potential; it helps to move from the exploitation of non-renewable natural capital to renewable human capital. All these socio-economic measures should give decoupling effect, make risks lower, reduce the exploitation of natural capital, stop the environmental degradation and prevent the ecological crisis. Transition to the green economic model has to be accompanied by new economic development indicators, which take into account social and environmental factors.The research was supported by the grant of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research No. 14-06-00075

A collection of tools for factory eco-efficiency

co-efficiency is generally defined as doing more with less, aiming to decouple environmental impact from economic and social value creation. This paper presents three tools to guide the implementation of eco-efficiency in factories: (1) definition and patterns of good practices for sustainable manufacturing, (2) a self-assessment tool and maturity grid, and (3) a factory modelling framework

Competing Dimensions of Energy Security: An International Perspective

How well are industrialized nations doing in terms of their energy security? Without a standardized set of metrics, it is difficult to determine the extent that countries are properly responding to the emerging energy security challenges related to climate change, growing dependence on fossil fuels, population growth and economic development. In response, we propose the creation of an Energy Security Index to inform policymakers, investors and analysts about the status of energy conditions. Using the United States and 21 other member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as an example, and looking at energy security from 1970 to 2007, our index shows that only four countries¡ªBelgium, Denmark, Japan, and the United Kingdom¡ªhave made progress on multiple dimensions of the energy security problem. The remaining 18 have either made no improvement or are less secure. To make this argument, the first section of the article surveys the scholarly literature on energy security from 2003 to 2008 and argues that an index should address accessibility, affordability, efficiency, and environmental stewardship. Because each of these four components is multidimensional, the second section discusses ten metrics that comprise an Energy Security Index: oil import dependence, percentage of alternative transport fuels, on-road fuel economy for passenger vehicles, energy intensity, natural gas import dependence, electricity prices, gasoline prices, sulfur dioxide emissions, and carbon dioxide emissions. The third section analyzes the relative performance of four countries: Denmark (the top performer), Japan (which performed well), the United States (which performed poorly), and Spain (the worst performer). The article concludes by offering implications for policy. Conflicts between energy security criteria mean that advancement along any one dimension can undermine progress on another dimension. By focusing on a 10-point index, public policy can better illuminate such tradeoffs and can identify compensating policies