Methodology for Quantifying the Energy Saving Potentials Combining Building Retrofitting, Solar Thermal Energy and Geothermal Resources

Abstract

New technological, societal and legislative developments are necessary to support transitions to low-carbon energy systems. The building sector is responsible for almost 36% of the global final energy and 40% of CO2 emissions, so this sector has high potential to contribute to the expansion of positive energy districts. With this aim, a new digital Geographic Information System (GIS) platform has been developed to quantify the energy savings obtained through the implementation of refurbishment measures in residential buildings, including solar thermal collectors and geothermal technologies and assuming the postal district as the representative unit for the territory. Solar resources have been estimated from recently updated solar irradiation maps, whereas geothermal resources have been estimated from geological maps. Urbanistic data have been estimated from official cadastre databases. For representative buildings, the annual energy demand and savings are obtained and compared with reference buildings, both for heating and cooling. The GIS platform provides information on average results for each postal district, as well as estimates for buildings with particular parameters. The methodology has been applied to the Asturian region, an area of about 10,600 km2 on the Cantabrian coast of Spain, with complex orography and scattered population, qualified as a region in energy transition. High rehabilitation potentials have been achieved for buildings constructed before the implementation of the Spanish Technical Building Code of 2006, being higher for isolated houses than for collective buildings. Some examples of results are introduced in specific localities of different climatic zones.

Towards a Renewable Energy Source Cadastre—A Review of Examples from around the World

“…The cadastre of areas from which geothermal energy can be extracted was described even less frequently in the reviewed publications than that of biomass. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that a platform has been developed for the Asturias region (the Cantabrian coast in Spain), which calculates the energy savings that can be achieved using geothermal technologies [89]. The geothermal resources were estimated on the basis of the National Geological Map (MAGNA), prepared by the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME) between 1972 and 2003.…”

Plug and Play Modular Façade Construction System for Renovation for Residential Buildings

“…Although other studies have used other tools, applications or methodologies to perform building energy assessments [60,61], due to the accuracy and possibilities it offers for integrating building usage data, this study has selected the use of Design Builder [62] along with its simulation engine EnergyPlus to perform the energy assessments of the real building retrofit. Simulation schedules for the energy performance calculation can generally be derived from the building regulations.…”

Smart Cities and Positive Energy Districts: Urban Perspectives in 2020

“…This Editorial article provides a summary of the Special Issue of Energies, covering the published papers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] which address several of the topics mentioned in the Introduction. Table 1 identifies the most relevant topics in each published paper.…”

“…A new digital Geographic Information System (GIS) platform developed to quantify the energy savings obtained through the implementation of refurbishment measures in residential buildings, including solar thermal collectors and geothermal technologies, and assuming the postal district as the representative unit for the territory is presented in [7] by Emanuela Giancola et al The new developed GIS platform based on the interaction of different technologies and available resources is a step forward in the field of built environment towards smart energy communities, supporting the low carbon energy transition. The article highlights the GIS methodology which has been applied to the Asturian region in Spain, qualified as a region in energy transition.…”