Author Archives: Juan Luis Vidal

Researchers from MIT creates a new model of energy demand for the city of Boston

Boston have a new and powerful tool to plan its energy future thanks to the researchers from the MIT. It will allow the relevant authorities to take better decisions on the requirements of the energy growth of the city.

Christoph Reinhart, architecture associated teacher, and Carlos Cerezo, a PhD student in Building Technology, have developed an unprecedented energy model for the city’s buildings. This model estimates the gas and electricity demand of all buildings of Boston -almost 100.000 in total- per hour of each day of the year.
The major cities, as well as energy companies and general businesses – may reduce a building’s energy consumption through efficient measures such as reconversion or the installation of photo voltaic energy in the rooftop.  However, to identify the more complete solutions, the energy systems (CHP) that serve said buildings, the constructions on the predictions on their requirements must be linked to combined energy and heating provision models.

The team in charge of it dedicated much time to the classification of all 92,000 buildings in the city in 48 different “archetypes” and 12 different categories of use (for example, residential or offices).  The following assigned different characteristics for each archetype, taking into consideration what this represented in the heating and cooling consumption, energy consumption, thermostat configurations, and the structure of roofs and walls, etc.

This model represents a new path in the direction that leads to the creation of habitable spaces that respect the environment.

Wec central and eastern europe regional energy forum – foren 2016

Conservation, New Trends and Issues in the  FOREN 2016 International Conference “WEC CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE REGIONAL ENERGY FORUM – FOREN”, at Costinesti, Romania (at the Black Sea), between 12-16 June 2016.

The title “Safe and Sustainable Energy for the Region” will comprehend the topics treated in the event. It will rely on the main experts on the matter, which include our ICPE partners among them.

Organized every two years, FOREN is recognized as the most important energy themed event of central and eastern Europe, which brings together more than 1,000 participants. Besides the members of WEC / RNC, the Forum will attract governments senior officials, ministers, academicians, European international energy enterprises leaders, energy and environment experts and specialized and general media representatives, making the event an excellent platform of dissemination.

The deadline to present the documentation is February, 29th.

The European Union’s new strategy on heating and cooling explores the potential of natural cooling methods

On February 16, 2016, the European Commission announced a new initiative in its community strategy on issues such as heating and cooling systems inside buildings.  The objective is to propel and accelerate the renovation of these new mechanisms.  For this, a list of natural cooling methods has been created that present great opportunities for energy saving.

The European Commission presented the first strategy for heating and cooling elements never before approached in the European Union.  The initiative’s objective is to create the most intelligent, most energy efficient and sustainable heating and cooling systems in buildings and the industry ever.  This may represent a great opportunity for the industry of natural cooling methods, as Europe wants to free its stock of community buildings from carbon derived elements by the year 2050.

90% of houses in the European Union are currently inefficient energy-wise.  This is easily understood as half the building stocks in existence were built before there were community regulations on this issue, and Europe has a building refitting rhythm that does not even reach 1%.

To prepare the transition toward low carbon consumption heating and cooling, the European Commission will review the Directive on energy efficiency, the directive on energy efficiency in buildings, and the initiative of intelligent financing for smart buildings launched in 2016.

For more information click here.

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The European project School of the Future has demonstrated the viability of creating energy efficient schools

The School of the Future project has arrived at last, financed by the European Commission under the FP7 framework and has counted upon four pilot schools in all of Europe and located in different regions (Denmark, Germany, Italy and Norway).  The project emphasizes how schools may be sources of exceptional energy efficiency, providing a high quality interior environment, while also being economically viable.

Through the renovation of existing schools and their power systems, the integration of renewable energy solutions and the creation of advanced management systems, the project wanted to demonstrate that the complete use of energy may be reduced by a factor of 3.

On the other hand, a 75% reduction in the power usage for heating may be achieved with an investment of less than € 100 for cubic meter, addressing the results obtained by the project.

Another of the project’s objective was to disseminate the results obtained through the students themselves from the schools that served as pilots, consociating families to the activities of energy efficiency and its results.

It has also equipped the classroom with tools to educate students, the faculty and service personnel in energy efficiency topics with the objective of expanding knowledge on an area with much relevance for the European Union such as environmental sustainability.

http://www.school-of-the-future.eu/

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