Benchmarking Energy Sustainability in Cities

Energy efficiency is a strategic component of urban sustainability. The aim of this workshop is to address benchmarking techniques in energy efficiency and sustainability as a management tool in the context of urban and local community actions towards sustainability. The workshop also identifies and discusses methodologies and tools to measure urban sustainable energy and energy efficiency in cities. It is well known that standard benchmarking techniques, such as per capita or GDP normalization, are missing important features of the collected data used for benchmarking. Rigorous benchmarking techniques are likely to play an increasingly important role for policy-making authorities and for local authorities to assess their energy efficiency actions, to monitor their performance, exchange experience and learn from each other. In order to develop reliable and robust benchmarking techniques, different databases on energy consumption and location should be integrated with statistical and energy performance assessment methodologies. A special session was dedicated to databases, methodologies and GIS based tools for assessing energy sustainability in urban areas

Proceeding of the Workshop "Benchmarking Energy Sustainability in Cities"

Energy efficiency is a strategic component of urban sustainability. The aim of this workshop is to address benchmarking techniques in energy efficiency and sustainability as a management tool in the context of urban and local community actions towards sustainability. The workshop also identifies and discusses methodologies and tools to measure urban sustainable energy and energy efficiency in cities. It is well known that standard benchmarking techniques, such as per capita or GDP normalization, are missing important features of the collected data used for benchmarking. Rigorous benchmarking techniques are likely to play an increasingly important role for policy-making authorities and for local authorities to assess their energy efficiency actions, to monitor their performance, exchange experience and learn from each other. In order to develop reliable and robust benchmarking techniques, different databases on energy consumption and location should be integrated with statistical and energy performance assessment methodologies. A special session was dedicated to databases, methodologies and GIS based tools for assessing energy sustainability in urban areas.JRC.F.7-Renewables and Energy Efficienc

Guidebook 'How to develop a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP)'

The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (CoM) is an ambitious initiative for local climate and energy actions. This document provides signatories with a set of methodological principle, procedures and best practices to develop their SECAP. The Part 1 of this document relates to the SECAP process; while Part 2gives an insight on the elaboration of municipality assessments (BEI and RVA), finally Part 3 describes technical issues, measures and policies that can be implemented at local level.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable

A Rational Exergy Management Model to Curb CO2 Emissions in the Exergy-Aware Built Environments of the Future

This thesis puts forth the means of a strategic approach to address a persistent problem in the energy system and in this way, to transition the built environment to a future state that is more exergy-aware to curb CO2 emissions. Such a vision is made possible by the six-fold contributions of the research work: I) An analytical model is developed, which for the first time, formulates the CO2 emissions that are compounded in the energy system as a function of the systematic failures to match the supply and demand of exergy. This model is namely the Rational Exergy Management Model or REMM. II) REMM is then applied to analyze the pathways in which it is possible to lead the built environment into addressing structural overshoots in its exergy supply to curb CO2 emissions. The cases that embody these pathways are also analyzed over a base case, including cases for sustainable heating and cooling. III) New tools are designed to augment decision-making and exemplify a paradigm shift in the more rational usage of exergy to curb CO2 emissions. These include a scenario-based analysis tool, new options for CO2 wedges, and a multi-fold solution space for CO2 mitigation strategies based on REMM. IV) The concept of a net-zero exergy building (NZEXB) is developed and related to REMM strategies as the building block of an exergy-aware energy system. The target of a NZEXB is further supported by key design principles, which address shortcomings in state-of-the-art net-zero design. V) A premier building that deployed the key design principles to integrate building technology in an innovative, exergy-aware design and received LEED Platinum is analyzed on the basis of the NZEXB target. The results validate that this building boosts net self-sufficiency and curbs compound CO2 emissions, which are then presented in a proposed scheme to benchmark and/or label future NZEXBs. VI) Based on the scalability of the best-practices of the NZEXB ready building, the means to realize a smarter energy system that has exergy-aware relations in each aspect of the value chain to curb CO2 emissions are discussed. This includes a target for such a network at the community level, namely a net-zero exergy community (NZEXC). As a whole, the results of the thesis indicate that the strategic approach as provided by REMM and the NZEXB target of the research work has the potential to steer the speed and direction of societal action to curb CO2 emissions. The thesis concludes with a roadmap that represents a cyclical series of actions that may be scaled-up at various levels of the built environment in a transition to be in better balance with the Planet.QC 2011101

Educating Future Energy Engineers for Sustainability: Case Study in Energy Economy

This paper analyzes the case study of an interdisciplinary course in Energy Economy that was developed at the Energy Engineering Graduate Program at Baskent University. The course integrated several unique pedagogical features to satisfy the aim of developing a working knowledge in energy economy with an energy systems perspective. The novel aspects of the course thematically led to a capstone research project where 5 teams of 17 course participants analyzed their prioritized solutions towards improving the energy self-sufficiency of the campus based on the practice of energy economy. The results of the teams' solutions towards a net-zero energy/exergy campus included electric buses for city-campus transport, poly-generation for the new Arts Center, LED/OLED lighting for campus lighting, dynamo driven/piezoelectric sports center, biofuels from the university-owned dairy products farm, and an energy efficient technology incubation center. This unique course with participatory learning is compared with others before concluding that the case study is a useful international example for energy economy

Hydrogen Economy Model for Nearly Net-Zero Cities with Exergy Rationale and Energy-Water Nexus

The energy base of urban settlements requires greater integration of renewable energy sources. This study presents a "hydrogen city" model with two cycles at the district and building levels. The main cycle comprises of hydrogen gas production, hydrogen storage, and a hydrogen distribution network. The electrolysis of water is based on surplus power from wind turbines and third-generation solar photovoltaic thermal panels. Hydrogen is then used in central fuel cells to meet the power demand of urban infrastructure. Hydrogen-enriched biogas that is generated from city wastes supplements this approach. The second cycle is the hydrogen flow in each low-exergy building that is connected to the hydrogen distribution network to supply domestic fuel cells. Make-up water for fuel cells includes treated wastewater to complete an energy-water nexus. The analyses are supported by exergy-based evaluation metrics. The Rational Exergy Management Efficiency of the hydrogen city model can reach 0.80, which is above the value of conventional district energy systems, and represents related advantages for CO2 emission reductions. The option of incorporating low-enthalpy geothermal energy resources at about 80 degrees C to support the model is evaluated. The hydrogen city model is applied to a new settlement area with an expected 200,000 inhabitants to find that the proposed model can enable a nearly net-zero exergy district status. The results have implications for settlements using hydrogen energy towards meeting net-zero targets

Covenant of Mayors: Local energy generation, methodology, policies and good practice examples

Local authorities and cities are at the forefront of driving the energy transition, which plays a crucial role in mitigating the effects of climate change. The greenhouse gas emissions in cities, due to energy consumption, are placed into two categories: direct emissions generated from the combustion of fossil fuels mainly in buildings and transport sectors, and indirect emissions from grid-supplied energy, such as electricity and district heating and/or cooling. While there is extensive literature focused on direct greenhouse gas emissions accounting in cities’ inventories, research has focused to a lesser extent on allocation methods of indirect emissions from grid-supplied energy. The present paper provides an updated definition for the concept of local energy generation within the Covenant of Mayors initiative and proposes a new methodology for indirect emission accounting in cities’ greenhouse gas emission inventories. In addition, a broader policy framework in which local action is taken is discussed based on the European Union energy and climate policies, and over 80 exemplary Covenant of Mayors good practices are identified across the technology areas of local energy generation and four modes of urban climate governance. The contributions of the paper demonstrate that local authorities have the capacity to support and mobilize action for local energy generation investments through the multiple modes of urban climate governance to update and strengthen climate action.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable

Multi-objective Optimization and Parametric Analysis of Energy System Designs for the Albano University Campus in Stockholm

In this study, a multi-objective optimization approach is applied to the energy system design of the Albano university campus in Stockholm. The greenhouse gas emissions, the life cycle cost and the net exergy deficit of the campus are minimized, while the nearly zero energy requirements are respected. Four optimal solutions are identified based on those under equal importance, environment-oriented, economy-oriented, and exergy-oriented scenarios. The energy components of the four scenarios are analyzed and compared. A parametric analysis is conducted to investigate the impact of the variations in a number of economic, environmental and technical parameters on the composition of the optimal solution. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

Cleaner energy supply structures for campus building clusters

The comparison of building clusters based on energy and the quality of energy (exergy) is a key aspect for determining steps towards cleaner energy supply structures. This paper compares two building clusters based on an integrated approach that involves building and energy system level analyses. The first cluster involves 8 buildings with diverse energy profiles at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology campus, including faculty buildings, laboratories, and a data center with waste heat recovery. The second cluster involves planned buildings in the Albano district in the vicinity of the KTH campus that will be a joint area with lecture buildings and accommodation for 3 universities in Stockholm. The present energy supply structure for the campus and the surrounding urban area includes a local combined heat and power (CHP) plant. The comparison of the building clusters involve analyses based on the Rational Exergy Management Model. Four scenarios, which involve different shares for the existing CHP units, new biofuel CHP unit, seawater heat pumps, peak load boilers, electric boilers, large scale aquifer thermal energy storage, heat supply from solar collectors, and electricity and heat from photovoltaic thermal arrays are devised for comparison. The scenarios have at most an exergy match of 0.81. The paper concludes with useful results that are in line with the aims of IEA Annex 64 on Optimised Performance of Energy Supply Systems with Exergy Principles.QC 20160923</p