Lessons learned from analysing PED case studies

The development of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) is a complex process that involves the integration of various technologies, stakeholders, and policies. To facilitate this process, a database for PEDs has been developed as a joint effort of COST Action 'PED-EU-NET', IEA EBC Annex 83, and JPI Urban Europe. This paper reports analyzes international strategies for PED planning and its implementation. To learn from best practice examples, there is an increasing demand for PED cases descriptions that offer a variety of implementation strategies and conceptualizations for the PED concept. The collection of case studies from various settings so far has shown that there is no onefits-all solution for PED implementation, and the overall PED framework definitions require further detailing in the local context. In this paper the challenges and key success factors for planning and implementation of PEDs is described with a focused analysis of three PED cases. One PED case each from Europe, from Canada and from Japan highlights the challenges of PEDs. Similarities and differences of the PED cases are compared and key success factors distilled. Thus, the DNA of PEDs can be further revealed. These are technological solutions, depending on the local circumstances (natural and imposed constraints), planning and implementation processes, and overall local settings (municipality or private sector as a driver) that define the successful implementation of a PED. Overall, the PED-Database provides a valuable tool for the development of sustainable and energyefficient urban areas.<br/

Lessons learned from analysing PED case studies

The development of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) is a complex process that involves the integration of various technologies, stakeholders, and policies. To facilitate this process, a database for PEDs has been developed as a joint effort of COST Action 'PED-EU-NET', IEA EBC Annex 83, and JPI Urban Europe. This paper reports analyzes international strategies for PED planning and its implementation. To learn from best practice examples, there is an increasing demand for PED cases descriptions that offer a variety of implementation strategies and conceptualizations for the PED concept. The collection of case studies from various settings so far has shown that there is no onefits-all solution for PED implementation, and the overall PED framework definitions require further detailing in the local context. In this paper the challenges and key success factors for planning and implementation of PEDs is described with a focused analysis of three PED cases. One PED case each from Europe, from Canada and from Japan highlights the challenges of PEDs. Similarities and differences of the PED cases are compared and key success factors distilled. Thus, the DNA of PEDs can be further revealed. These are technological solutions, depending on the local circumstances (natural and imposed constraints), planning and implementation processes, and overall local settings (municipality or private sector as a driver) that define the successful implementation of a PED. Overall, the PED-Database provides a valuable tool for the development of sustainable and energyefficient urban areas.<br/

Towards the development of legislative framework for solar neighborhoods

The growing implementation of sustainable urban infrastructure, utilizing solar energy for heat and power generation, daylighting, and thermal comfort, has intensified the focus on sustainability standards and guidelines. Nevertheless, a noticeable deficiency persists in regulations that specifically address solar energy access and protection, posing a barrier to the diffusion of solar-centric neighborhoods. This paper examines the traditional urban regulatory frameworks and the state of solar energy regulations and practices within five countries (i.e., Canada, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland). The aim of the study is to (i) identify gaps in existing regulations, standards, and codes, (ii) highlight the need for future regulations to protect solar access and rights, and (iii) support the deployment of solar technologies on a large scale. The results underline that climate-related regulations often fall short of specificity tailored to regional and local climates, relying on generalized climate considerations. Solar energy legislation is generally scarce and lacks comprehensive planning. Finally, despite various financial incentives for the installation of active solar strategies, their impact remains limited, impeding the wide spread of solar technology as a primary source of energy production in urban environment

Energy Optimized Envelope for Cold Climate Indoor Agricultural Growing Center

This paper presents a study of the development of building envelope design for improved energy performance of a controlled indoor agricultural growing center in a cold climate zone (Canada, 54° N). A parametric study is applied to analyze the effects of envelope parameters on the building energy loads for heating, cooling and lighting, required for maintaining growing requirement as obtained in the literature. A base case building of rectangular layout, incorporating conventionally applied insulation and glazing components, is initially analyzed, employing the EnergyPlus simulation program. Insulation and glazing parameters are then modified to minimize energy loads under assumed minimal lighting requirement. This enhanced design forms a base case for analyzing effects of additional design parameters—solar radiation control, air infiltration rate, sky-lighting and the addition of phase change materials—to obtain an enhanced design that minimizes energy loads. A second stage of the investigation applies a high lighting level to the enhanced design and modifies the design parameters to improve performance. A final part of the study is an investigation of the mechanical systems and renewable energy generation. Through the enhancement of building envelope components and day-lighting design, combined heating and cooling load of the low level lighting configuration is reduced by 65% and lighting load by 10%, relative to the base case design. Employing building integrated PV (BIPV) system, this optimized model can achieve energy positive status. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC), are discussed, as potential means to offset increased energy consumption associated with the high-level lighting model

Energy Systems and Energy Sharing in Traditional and Sustainable Archetypes of Urban Developments

Diverse factors influence the energy profile of an urban development including density, shape of buildings and their types, energy demand, and available energy resources. A systematic investigation of the energy characteristics of urban areas, involves the determination of representative archetypes of urban developments. This study presents a comparison of energy performance and resources between two categories of traditionally built urban development building clusters (BCs) in the North American urban context, and neighborhood units (NUs) designed with various sustainable principles and considerations. The study presents a methodology to optimize the mix of energy resources of individual building clusters and neighborhoods, as well as the optimization of energy sharing among the individual urban units of each category. Optimal energy sharing is determined based on the best combination of energy deficit and energy surplus of various clusters and neighborhoods. The study shows that in general neighborhood units encompassing diverse building uses and designed to allow different amenities within a walking distance perform better than commonly built building clusters with low usage diversity. Highly diverse neighborhoods that combine large commercial areas to high density residential buildings can generate up to 84% of their annual electrical and up to 37% of their annual thermal consumption. PV generation accounts for major part of the electrical energy generation of both individual urban units (BCs and NUs) and combination of these units. This can reach up to 92% of the total energy consumption of some combinations of NUs, while the remaining energy requirement is fulfilled by wind and waste to energy (3.4% and 4.9%, respectively). On the other hand, the study shows that thermal energy is mostly supplied by alternative energy sources, since building surfaces prioritize the accommodation of PV modules

Techniques of Improving Infrastructure and Energy Resilience in Urban Setting

The work proposes a technique to improve the infrastructure and energy resilience of new developments during the planning stage. Several resilience-related parameters are developed in this paper that can be used to quantify resilience. To apply these parameters, the work assumes various energy outage scenarios varying from less than 24 h to 3 weeks. During these scenarios, a neighborhood population can be relocated to several public buildings promoting better utilization of onsite energy resources. The technique is applied to four representative neighborhoods encompassing various sustainability measures including clean energy. Further, this paper demonstrates an urban scale improvement technique for greater energy and infrastructure resilience. The results indicate a significant improvement in infrastructure resilience by relocating public shelter buildings on the main street intersections so that these can be easily accessible during energy outages or disaster events. Energy resilience can be achieved by the appropriate design of onsite energy resources to eliminate vulnerabilities. For instance, 8.8% to 15.4% of additional land for solar thermal collectors can eliminate thermal energy vulnerabilities. When surplus generation from onsite resources is twice or more as compared to demand during their unavailability, the electrical vulnerability can be eliminated by employing suitable battery banks in various buildings

Solar neighborhoods: the impact of urban layout on a large-scale solar strategies application

Abstract The article addresses the challenges of evaluating energy performance in different neighborhood settings under various energy efficiency measures and proposes a methodology for selecting appropriate solar strategies on a neighborhood scale. The study selects five representative neighborhoods from various climatic zones with different building and street layouts. The proposed methodology involves a systematic three-step multi-domain workflow for implementing energy efficiency measures and solar strategies in the existing neighborhoods. The first step involves typical energy performance simulation, the second step involves energy simulation using high performance building envelope, and the third step involves the addition of solar strategies in combination with retrofitting materials to achieve net-zero status. The results of the study show that modifying the building envelope leads to a significant reduction in energy consumption, with up to 60% reduction observed. The study also finds that the optimal mix of solar strategies depends strongly on the type of neighborhood, its street layouts, and the type of buildings. The article highlights the importance of considering these factors when implementing solar strategies on a neighborhood scale to achieve energy efficiency and net-zero status. It provides urban planners with a systematic decision-making approach to evaluate and optimize neighborhoods to achieve net-zero energy status

Sustainability, emission trading system and carbon leakage: An approach based on neural networks and multicriteria analysis

Two transitions, green and digital, are changing the operations and strategies of industrial systems. At the same time, businesses are challenged to be globally competitive. Europe has a very ambitious agenda as it aims to be the first climate-neutral continent in 2050. The european emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) has proven to have facilitated the reduction of significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, but the risk of carbon leakage is present. This work seeks to explore these issues and their relationships. Through the use of a long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network, a model is built to determine the price of european union allowance (EUA) as a function of different financial energy futures. The results show that the model is very robust and the EUA tends to vary between 78 and 91 €/tCO2. In addition, a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is applied to identify the best policy alternatives to enable businesses subject to the EU ETS to be competitive in global markets. The analysis is carried out with the help of academic and industrial experts and it emerges that the criteria considered most relevant are two: (i) public expenditure and its expected benefits and (ii) the industrial ecosystem. The policy implications identify that bonuses should be provided to businesses for innovative solutions that protect both the energy and raw material components. The framework of the 3E (Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Circular Economy) are critical to businesses' long-term strategies, flanked by digital development