Search results for "Conservation"
showing 10 items of 2328 documents
Embodied energy and environmental impacts of a biomass boiler: a life cycle approach
2015
The 2030 policy framework for climate and energy, proposed by the European Commission, aims towards the reduction of European greenhouse gas emissions by 40% in comparison to the 1990 level and to increase the share of renewable energy of at least the 27% of the European's energy consumption of 2030. The use of biomass as sustainable and renewable energy source may be a viable tool for achieving the above goals. However, renewable energy technologies are not totally clean because they cause energy and environmental impacts during their life cycle, and in particular they are responsible of air pollutant emissions. In this context, the paper assesses the energy and environmental impacts of a …
Integration of distributed on site control actions via combined photovoltaic and solar panels system
2009
A systematic evaluation of the potential energy saving and CO2 emissions reduction on buildings was carried out, when a renewable energy system is locally installed. The exploitation of a combined solar and photovoltaic system and the integration of suitable energy management actions were deeply investigated. A model of these solar and photovoltaic components has been developed and included within a complete house simulator, capable to precisely figure out the daily electric energy consumptions of typical apartments and to measure the positive actions induced by the added renewable energy. Saving up to 40% on the energy consumptions and even more savings on wiring losses seems to be easily …
Addressing the main challenges of energy security in the twenty-first century – Contributions of the conferences on Sustainable Development of Energy…
2016
Abstract Climate change and fossil fuel reserve depletion both pose challenges for energy security and for wellbeing in general. The top ten among them include: Decarbonising the world economy; Enhancing the energy efficiency and energy savings in buildings; Advancing the energy technologies; Moving towards energy systems based on variable renewables; Electrifying the transport and some industrial processes; Liberalizing and extending the energy markets; Integrating energy sectors to Smart Energy Systems; Making the cities and communities smart; Diversifying the energy sources; and Building more biorefineries. Presenting the contributions of selected conference papers published in the speci…
Life cycle assessment of Italian citrus-based products. Sensitivity analysis and improvement scenarios
2009
Though many studies concern the agro-food sector in the EU and Italy, and its environmental impacts, literature is quite lacking in works regarding LCA application on citrus products. This paper represents one of the first studies on the environmental impacts of citrus products in order to suggest feasible strategies and actions to improve their environmental performance. In particular, it is part of a research aimed to estimate environmental burdens associated with the production of the following citrus-based products: essential oil, natural juice and concentrated juice from oranges and lemons. The life cycle assessment of these products, published in a previous paper, had highlighted sign…
Getting into the groove: Opportunities to enhance the ecological value of hard coastal infrastructure using fine-scale surface textures
2015
Concrete flood defences, erosion control structures, port and harbour facilities, and renewable energy infrastructure are increasingly being built in the world’s coastal regions. There is, however, strong evidence to suggest that these structures are poor surrogates for natural rocky shores, often supporting assemblages with lower species abundance and diversity. Ecological engineering opportunities to enhance structures for biodiversity conservation (and other management goals) are therefore being sought, but the majority of work so far has concentrated on structural design features at the centimetre–meter scale.\ud \ud We deployed concrete tiles with four easily-reproducible fine-scale (m…
Power Consumption Analysis of Operating Systems for Wireless Sensor Networks
2010
In this paper four wireless sensor network operating systems are compared in terms of power consumption. The analysis takes into account the most common operating systems-TinyOS v1.0, TinyOS v2.0, Mantis and Contiki-running on Tmote Sky and MICAz devices. With the objective of ensuring a fair evaluation, a benchmark composed of four applications has been developed, covering the most typical tasks that a Wireless Sensor Network performs. The results show the instant and average current consumption of the devices during the execution of these applications. The experimental measurements provide a good insight into the power mode in which the device components are running at every moment, and t…
Energy saving and solar energy use in the University of Valencia (Spain)
2004
Abstract Recent years have seen increasing public interest in issues related to energy saving and concern for the environment. It is important to highlight the work of public institutions in this respect. This was the motive that led the University of Valencia to finance a pilot project with the objective of studying useful initiatives for optimising energy consumption in accordance with the institution’s needs as well as the incorporation of innovative and more efficient technologies. The approach was to consider various aspects ranging from the analysis of the current energy consumption and the state of the installations, through the substitution of some energy inefficient components, to …
Energy certification of buildings: A comparative analysis of progress towards implementation in European countries
2010
Abstract The Energy Performance Building Directive (Directive 2002/91/EC) introduced the compulsory energy certification of buildings in the EU from 2006 and it has played a key role in the common policy to monitor and reduce energy consumption. In order to assess the experience gained in this field in Europe overall, and in particular against the highly diverse settings of the different European nations, this paper examines the extent to which the Directive has been implemented by the 27 EU Member States. This is done via a comparative analysis assisted by two different indicators: of uniformity and of excellence. The measure of uniformity makes it possible to assess the degree of harmony …
The Energy System of Sicilian Region, Italy: 2014 situation and evolutionary trends
2015
The development of reliable energy scenarios are become increasingly more important and crucial due to scientific interest but also because it is essential for the deployment of effective energy policies in the territory. The depletion of Fossil Fuels and the need for the most industrialized countries to achieve the target of a sustainable development have induced important national, European and global initiatives. These actions have led to major changes on each energy system of countries and regions, contributing to the evolution of new local energy systems. In this paper, the Authors have collected, processed and analyzed the data concerning the evolution and changes of the Sicilian ener…
Describing urban soils through a faceted system ensures more informed decision-making
2016
Urban areas are increasing worldwide at a dramatic rate and their soils definitely deserve more attention than they have received in the past. In urban environments, soils potentially provide the same ecosystem services as in rural and wild environments, although in some cases they are depleted of their basic functions, such as when they lose their productive and filtering capacities because of sealing, and become mere supports for infrastructures. In other cases, soils of urban areas acquire new functions that are unique to these environments. Current soil classifications fail to effectively account for the complexity of urban soils and the information that is required for their management…