The population and urbanization growth will lead to more dependency on mechanical cooling which is not a long term sustainable strategy. Therefore, it is important to ensure all elements involved in urban sustainable developments are well performing. Of these elements, building materials have an essential role to adjusting outdoor heat environment transfer to the indoors. As part of the research society work in Cairo towards minimizing the "black cloud" generated due to burning rice roots and straw after cultivation, this paper studies the thermal performance of a novel manufactured brick using rice straw fibbers on a cement-aggregate mixture basis. It has been designed to provide a recycled constructional biomaterial, to help healthy urban environment and reduce cooling energy demands. E NVI-met BETA5 numerical simulations were held for an existing microclimatic area to assess the impact of this brick on outdoor comfort in terms of Predicted Mean Vote, PMV, as well as for indoor conditions in terms of ambient air temperature. Among the many mixtures to produce the least bricks number suitable for transportation (1000 bricks), only two were optimum for cost, mechanical and thermal properties. In comparison with normal cement brick, PMV records showed fixed values using the selected rice-straw based cement brick mixture. In evening, it recorded less mean outdoor air temperature as different wall heat interaction occurred due to the new brick k-value. This suggests that the new brick balances between indoor and outdoor needs and contributes to further investigations in terms of energy conscious urban planning.

The paper illustrates a project carried out -between 2012 and 2013 -during which the first eni solar/fossil hybrid power plant -without any grid connection and energy storage systems -has been designed, built, started up and successfully operated -in Egyptian Western Desert -over more than 8000 hours. The purpose of the project was to enhance the efficiency of oil production operation by integrating solar with diesel fuelled power production.A patented Power Management Module (PMS) optimizes power flows among the components of the plant, namely Photovoltaic (PV) panels, Diesel Generator (DG) and sucker rods electric engines. The plant has demonstrated reliability in hostile conditions and capability to save diesel fuel and reduce CO 2 emissions up to 12 %. Further optimizations have also been identified, in order to enhance the performance of the whole system.