SINFONIA Project Mass Appraisal: Beyond The Value Of Energy Performance In Buildings

Energy retrofit of existing buildings stock is today a major urban challenge and opportunity. Although a market appreciation of green buildings is generally recognized, specificities related to different countries, contexts and sectors still need further investigation. Moreover, the energy retrofit carries with it multiple elements, ranging from monetary savings to personal fulfillment of living greener. The ongoing European smart city project SINFONIA offers the chance to analyze a double international case study, and to estimate expected positive effects on dwellings\u2019 value, due to energy retrofit measures undertaken at the district level. This paper, starting from previous similar experiences, designs an operational approach based on spatial hedonic price method and analytic hierarchy process. Finally, it suggests how to develop a spatialized mass appraisal by linking results with a geographical information system. Such approach will contribute to assess the socio-economic impact of SINFONIA project and to evaluate the effectiveness of further smart city initiatives

Multiple-benefits from buildings\u2019 refurbishment: Evidence from smart city projects in Europe

Given the necessity of strengthening the transition towards a smarter, more sustainable low-carbon future, Smart Cities are considered a powerful tool. However, Smart City projects involving the refurbishment of existing buildings carry key barriers to implementation. The most prominent ones are: (i) a wide time discrepancy between appreciable environmental and economic benefits and immediate costs of action and (ii) economic benefits that might not accrue to who bears the cost of the intervention. This research provides a clue to solving this impasse based on the concept of multiple-benefits evaluation stemming from a shift in perspective from mitigation costs to development opportunities. We considered the costs of interventions on the European building stock under the Smart City projects to assess the multiple-benefits delivered to society. Starting from the monetary aspects of single projects, we identified multipliers to assess three different types of multiple-benefits: (i) Energy savings; (ii) Health and well-being; and iii.) Employment. Our findings indicate that in a time span of 14 years (2005\u20132018), an amount of about 260 million Euros invested in such projects lead to: (i) an accumulated saving potential of approximately 40 kilotons of oil equivalent, corresponding to 465 GWh; (ii) a reduction in air pollution corresponding to a value of 3 million Euros in avoided costs; and (iii) the creation of around 1,000 jobs with an average duration of 5 years. Considering that most of such investments occurred during the latest economic recession, the impact of the aforementioned multi-benefits appears to be not negligible

Smart and sustainable projects at the energy-district level. How to assess them based on the co-benefits paradigm

The main topic of this doctoral thesis is the co-benefit concept, here applied as an assessment paradigm to innovative urban projects. In this research, a co-benefit is defined as any positive impact or effect, regardless of the intentionality, exceeding the primary project goal. More specifically, because the projects here analyzed are those aiming at (re)developing smart and sustainable energy districts, CO2 emission reduction and energy savings are considered the twin primary goals. To investigate the applicability of the assessment paradigm, the work focuses both on methodological and operative issues, each developed in a single research. The general topic and the four papers are summarized in chapter 1 “Introduction and research papers presentation”, also including a brief overview of complementary research activities, and then further developed in as many chapters. The core of the work starts with two general investigations concerning (i) the co-benefits identification and classification under the smart-city perspective, and (ii) the application to them of the most suitable monetization techniques. Then, it concludes with two instances of investigative fieldwork into co-benefits, about (iii) the marginal implicit value of energy performance in residential properties, and (iv) the priorities declared by houseowners as they consider a deep-energy retrofit. To identify and classify the co-benefits, with respect to the various project activities, it is necessary to establish a common lexicon among the various expressions and definitions employed by projects. This phase is also needed to define the boundaries of the investigation, as well as the reference scale, and to avoid double counting. In chapter 2 “Overview and taxonomy of co-benefits based on European experiences”, I propose a classification rooted in practical experiences reported by projects dealing with the implementation of green neighborhoods and urban renewable-energy systems. Due to the vastness and diversity of urban projects labeled as smart, sustainable, or both, it was also necessary to identify a subset of them having similar characteristics, here named Smart and Sustainable Energy-District Projects (SSEDPs). Thus, the focus was on 36 finished or still-running SSEDPs funded by the European Union (EU) within two relevant initiatives: “Concerto” and “Smart Cities and Communities”. The anticipated or already experienced co-benefits were extracted by accessing official sources (e.g., websites, reports) and reviewing them with respect to the specialized literature, obtaining 156 different expressions referring to positive impacts. After a thorough and iterative comparison by a group of experts, a short list of 19 key urban co-benefits is extracted. Finally, to show how relevant is the contribution of these projects to improving the quality of life of citizens and urban competitiveness, a smart-city-based taxonomy is elaborated, by sorting the co-benefits into seven groupings: smart natural environment, smart services, smart community, smart governance, smart economy, smart built environment, and smart mobility. Chapter 3 “Economic assessment methodologies” faces the issue of providing an overview of suitable methodologies for economic assessment, and of creating a framework for evaluating the key urban co-benefits recognized by EU-funded SSEDPs. The aim is to explore the feasibility of a co-benefit approach to a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) being applied to the decision-making framework by quantifying, in monetary terms, all the positive effects (benefits or inflow), as well as the negatives (costs or outflow). Due to the specificity of some co-benefits, besides direct-market value, non-market techniques have been identified as applicable to price them. Such techniques investigate consumers’ preferences starting from individual purchasing habits (revealed preferences) or asking them directly about their preferences (stated preferences). It showed that, for a minority of co-benefits, even the monetization of the human capital should be assessed to complete the whole picture. As a result, looking at the reference literature and involving a multidisciplinary team of experts, an “assessment menu” is developed, suggesting indicators and techniques. The menu also includes some estimated values reported by other studies, examples of practical application in similar contexts, and techniques or approaches suggested by analogy to the reference literature. The chapter 4 “A hedonic price model of energy performance of buildings” is tested in the city of Bolzano. This estimation technique identifies price factors (transactions or asking prices) according to the premise that an asset’s price is determined both by the intrinsic characteristics of the good being sold and extrinsic ones. The research constitutes the first attempt at breaking down the local residential property price and including, among the relevant factors, internal characteristics such as the energy performance certificate (EPC) class. By accessing a specialized real-estate website, 1,130 selling advertisements are collected, then geolocated, and analyzed by using Geographic Information System (GIS) software. The aim was to test the presence of spatial autocorrelation, and to eventually correct the estimation based on the ordinary least-squares (OLS) method. In fact, a neglected consideration of spatial relationships, in the presence of spatial dependence would lead to biased results. After a careful refinement of the sample, the evaluation of the marginal contribution of EPC class in the determination of the asking price has been estimated in a 6.3% price premium, moving from lowest class (G) to middle classes (C or D), and a 9.5% when reaching the highest classes (A or B), ceteris paribus. Finally, the OLS-regression result is confirmed, after checking for spatial autocorrelation and testing the Spatial Lag model (the GIS software ArcMap and GeoDa were used). In chapter 5 “A multiple benefits approach to understanding citizen priorities for deep-energy retrofitting”, the focus shifts from a specific co-benefit to a specific target group. Here, priorities declared by houseowners approaching a deep-energy retrofit are shown and weighted, adopting a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method. According to the test-phase results, a decision tree with five criteria and 15 subcriteria has been designed: four in “thermal and hygrometric comfort”; three in “design and architectural quality”, “acoustic comfort”, and “economic benefits”; and two in “sustainability”. Then, a pool of ten experts in the field of energy refurbishment and building works (selected among those working in South Tyrol) has been interviewed by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique, which enables evaluation of qualitative criteria through pairwise comparison. The “Super Decisions” software was used, which is specifically designed to support the data collection and results’ validation of AHP. Not surprisingly, the “economic-benefits” side plays a relevant role (38% of the global importance). However, a cross-sector analysis of expected benefits dealing with better health and well-being of occupants reveals that they cover 41% of the overall motivation. These points should be carefully considered not only in the design phase of a private project but also in the communication strategies and within each participatory phase of any project where the decision-maker (private or public) differs from the occupant. The thesis culminates with chapter 6 “Conclusions”, where achieved results of all the four previously described investigations are briefly summarized and further developments are proposed as an impetus for deeper investigations or cross-cutting research

Urban Density and Household-Electricity Consumption: An Analysis of the Italian Residential Building Stock

AbstractThe influence of urban density on household electricity consumption is still scarcely investigated, despite the growing attention to building energy performance and the electrification of heating systems advocated at the European level. While the positive correlation between urban sprawl developments and the increasing of marginal costs of public infrastructures, services, amenities, public, and private transports are known, there has been little research on the relationship between urban form and electricity consumption in residential building stock. The present work aims to contribute to filling the gap in the existing literature, presenting the early results of ongoing research on the role of urban form in the household electricity consumption in Italy and, consequently, the related energy costs. The building typology and, in general, the structure of urban dwellings, is crucial to forecasting the electricity requirements, taking into account single housing units and their spatial composition in multi-family homes and neighborhoods. After a brief literature review on the topic, the contribution presents empirical research on the electricity consumption at the municipal level in 140 Italian cities, analyzing the diverse consumption patterns under different conditions of urban density to verify whether there exists a significant statistical correlation between them. The analysis confirms that there is a statistically negative correlation between urban density and the log of electricity consumption, even if its incidence is very limited. Further investigation may highlight whether there exists a threshold for which this relationship would be reversed, explaining the higher electricity consumption in dense metropolitan areas

Augmented Nature-Based Solutions: A Possible Taxonomy of Technologies “in” and “for” Urban Greening Strategies

The conceptualization and application of nature-based solutions (NBS) in the practice of planning and projects on urban and architectural scales have reached a level of maturity in the last 10 years, thanks to a strong push from European policies and funding for European projects and evidence from scientific literature. However, a systemic insight into the role of technology in supporting the spread of NBS has not yet been developed. The role of technology is understood here as fundamental to the very core concept of NBS, i.e., engineering solutions that integrate technological aspects to effectively increase nature’s potential. The authors,therefore, propose an investigation into the various opportunities offered by technology integrated “into ” greenery and used “ for” promoting greenery, based on the experience of two European Horizon 2020 projects, CLEVER Cities and VARCITIES, and from theapplication cases presented during the dedicated track at the SSPCR 2022 conference

COMUNITÀ ENERGETICHE RINNOVABILI: PROPOSTA PER UNA CLASSIFICAZIONE DEI BENEFICI MULTIPLI ED ESEMPI DI APPROCCI VALUTATIVI

Since renewable energy community projects are very different in their organizational structure, motivations, goals, they are also different in their societal impacts. In this paper, a variety of possible benefits and negative side effects is summarized, resulting in the elaboration of the taxonomy of impacts and its indicators.  Our innovative taxonomy describes multiple impacts within such dimensions as time, scale, type, group, beneficiary/affected stakeholder. The assessment technique is offered to each impact. The second part of the research offers an example of the simple assessment of two different Italian renewable energy communities, organized in the form of cooperatives albeit having a very different business model and as an implication different impact. A list of benefits and negative side effects are thus identified. This list open ups the discussion on how to use the taxonomy in impact evaluations of renewable energy community projects

COSA ASPETTARSI DEL RISANAMENTO ENERGETICO DEGLI EDIFICI? UNO SGUARDO AI BENEFICI MULTIPLI DEI PROGETTI SMART CITY EUROPEI

Smart Cities are a powerful means for creating more livable and sustainable urban areas. Nevertheless, Smart City projects involving energy renovation of buildings present recurrent barriers to implementation - namely, i.) the wide time discrepancy between the appreciable benefits and the immediate costs of action, and ii.) the fact that who bears the cost of the intervention might not be the one directly benefitting from it. We estimate some of the multiple-benefits arising from the deep energy renovation of buildings with the aim of shifting the perspective from mitigation costs to development opportunities. We considered the interventions on the European building stock under Smart City projects to estimate some of the multiple-benefits delivered to society. We focused on i.) Energy savings; ii.) Health; and iii.) Employment. Between 2005 and 2018 about 260 million Euros were invested in energy renovations under Smart City projects and this led to: i.) an accumulated saving potential of approximately 40 kilotons of oil equivalent; ii.) a reduction in air pollution corresponding to a value of 3 million Euros; and iii.) the creation of about 1,000 jobs

LA TRANSIZIONE ENERGETICA NELLA MACROREGIONE ALPINA: DEFINIZIONE DELLA SITUAZIONE DI PARTENZA

Nowadays energy transition is a recurring topic, which describes the process of an energy system moving from fossil-based sources towards renewables. The transition can unfold at different levels, from the single initiative of a local com-munity to a complex cross-border agreement. The latter type is well represented by EUSALP, the European macro-regional strategy for the Alpine region. One of its aims is to transform its territory into a model region for energy efficiency and renewable energy. To support a well-informed decision making process, this study provides the first insight about the status quo of energy balances in EUSALP, at local as well as aggregated level. Moreover, it offers an overview on the various energy targets defined by the territorial units that constitute the EUSALP region. Data has been retrieved via a bottom-up quality-oriented process consisting of (i) a survey targeted at responsible person in local energy departments; and (ii) data control and harmonization. We found that the EUSALP region is actually a model region only in clean power production, whereas starting point as well as energy targets of territories are highly heterogeneous. We al-so identified the need of more harmonized data collection methodologies. We conclude that this bottom-up process can support and legitimate policy makers in cross-border cooperation activities under a smart macro-regional energy strategy, which pursues an increment in energy savings, renewable energy production and a broad engagement of relevant stakeholders. DOI: http://dx.medra.org/10.19254/LaborEst.16.1

LA TRANSIZIONE ENERGETICA NELLA MACROREGIONE ALPINA: DEFINIZIONE DELLA SITUAZIONE DI PARTENZA

Nowadays energy transition is a recurring topic, which describes the process of an energy system moving from fossil-based sources towards renewables. The transition can unfold at different levels, from the single initiative of a local com-munity to a complex cross-border agreement. The latter type is well represented by EUSALP, the European macro-regional strategy for the Alpine region. One of its aims is to transform its territory into a model region for energy efficiency and renewable energy. To support a well-informed decision making process, this study provides the first insight about the status quo of energy balances in EUSALP, at local as well as aggregated level. Moreover, it offers an overview on the various energy targets defined by the territorial units that constitute the EUSALP region. Data has been retrieved via a bottom-up quality-oriented process consisting of (i) a survey targeted at responsible person in local energy departments; and (ii) data control and harmonization. We found that the EUSALP region is actually a model region only in clean power production, whereas starting point as well as energy targets of territories are highly heterogeneous. We al-so identified the need of more harmonized data collection methodologies. We conclude that this bottom-up process can support and legitimate policy makers in cross-border cooperation activities under a smart macro-regional energy strategy, which pursues an increment in energy savings, renewable energy production and a broad engagement of relevant stakeholders