Positive Energy Districts and Energy Efficiency in Buildings: An Innovative Technical Communication Sheet to Facilitate Policy Officers’ Understanding to Enable Technologies and Procedure

Abstract

The Horizon 2020 framework programme is defining funding strategies for research and innovation projects in European cities and promoting policies and solutions for the transition to a competitive energy system at an urban scale. Given that Horizon Europe, thanks to the Driving Urban Transition Partnership, will fund RD&I projects regarding transitions to urban sustainability; how municipalities will implement different strategies is a relevant key to developing replicable models. We conducted this study on Italian cities through a mapping exercise on selected case studies. The aim was to provide a knowledge framework to municipalities undertaking sustainable urban development actions. We selected case studies based on energy efficiency in buildings, both in retrofits and new constructions. This highlighted how the adoption of multifaceted technological solutions blended well with each other, and led, not only, to satisfy the initial requirements, in terms of expected impacts from the single actions, but also provided relevant and replicable samples. For this, the analysis of solutions tested by different municipalities in the selected projects led to spreadsheets and indicators related to energy efficiency in buildings, which enabled a transition to a PED, which could facilitate an understanding of elements that must be clearly indicated in a preliminary design document (Directive 2014/24/UE).

Operational Insights and Future Potential of the Database for Positive Energy Districts

“…Once again, moving from the best practices investigated in the PED Booklet, but with a particular focus on the Italian context, an interactive filing system was designed targeting municipalities interested in systematically integrating the PED model into their planning tools [26,27].…”

Smart Cities and Positive Energy Districts: Urban Perspectives in 2021

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

“…The current study outlines macro-scale analyses in six European cities that represent Follower Cities under the Making-City H2020 project. Tiziana Ferrante and Teresa Villani [8] refer to an innovative technical communication sheet to facilitate policy officers' understanding about enabling-technologies and procedure to support the transition to a Positive Energy District. Based on the results of ENEA national research [Sustainable Urban Transition; pp.…”