Search results for "Energy efficiency"

How do policies for efficient energy use in the household sector induce energy-efficiency innovation? : An evaluation of European countries

2017

Abstract Research on innovation induced by climate-mitigation policy has been focused predominantly on the supply side of the energy system. Despite considerable climate-mitigation potential on the demand side, less attention is given to the innovation effect of policies addressing the household sector. Based on a comprehensive data set, including 550 policy measures over 30 years (1980–2009) and covering 21 European countries, we find—based on econometric estimations—that policies targeting efficient energy use in the household sector significantly increase the number of patented energy-efficiency inventions. A comparison of the different policy types reveals a particularly strong influenc…

Life Cycle Assessment of a compact Desiccant Evaporative Cooling system: The case study of the “Freescoo”

2016

Abstract The paper aims at exploring the performances of a compact Desiccant Evaporative Cooling system called “Freescoo” (Free Solar Cooling) in comparison to standard conventional technologies. The Freescoo – that aims at applications in the residential sector and in small office buildings and includes a photovoltaic–thermal system – is analyzed, its monitored performance discussed and reported: under cooling conditions an Energy Efficiency Ratio of 12.8 is calculated, that reaches 50.7 if also photovoltaic generation is considered. To assess the performance of the proposed system a Life Cycle Assessment study was performed to investigate the system covering all its life, from the product…

Modelling of a prosumer’s substation in a district heating network: validation and dynamic analysis

Thermal grids will play a key role in the development of local energy communities and the achievement of 100% renewable societies. However, challenges are related to the capability of dealing with the increasing number of producers which could supply heat to thermal grids. Indeed, as in the case of the electricity grid, heat could be available for some hours in a day from RES plants installed at user level and distributed in the network (also referred to as “prosumers”). To achieve more reliable results when performing energy analyses of these innovative applications, there is a need to rely on accurate models of each component. For instance, substations are of paramount importance in the i…

Pre-stressed translucent panels made of innovative 3D glass components DSC-integrated, for safety and active building façades

2018

The widespread use of glazed envelopes, especially in high-rise buildings, is pushing building designers and researchers to the development of novel solutions for the improvement of their performance. At the University of Palermo, SBskin. Smart Building Skin s.r.l. (an innovative start up and academic spin off) is prototyping precast, pre- stressed and dry-assembled panels made of 3D glass subcomponents, able to reduce the energy consumption of buildings, to produce clean energy and to maintain high level of mechanical resistance against horizontal forces due to winds and earthquakes. The integration of glass subcomponents with third-generation PV technologies -Dye- Sensitized Solar Cells (…

SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS FOR IMPROVING ENERGY EFFICIENCY, ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE AND RESILIENCE OF SINGLE AND CLUSTERED GROUPS OF BUILD…

2021

Energy consumption in the building sector is responsible for 36% of the energy use worldwide (corresponding to 39% of the total energy-related CO2 emissions), while at the European level the building sector accounts for a share of the total energy consumption comprised between 25% and 40% (corresponding to about 35% of the overall CO2 emissions throughout Europe). Concerning the Italian context, instead, such figures stand at about 40% and 17.5% for the energy consumption and for the CO2 emissions, respectively. In light of this, much attention has been paid, at global, European and single countries (national) levels on the important aspects regarding the reduction of energy consumption and…

Fog Computing based traffic Safety for Connected Vulnerable Road Users

2019

Annually, millions of people die and many more sustain non-fatal injuries because of road traffic crashes. Despite multitude of countermeasures, the number of causalities and disabilities owing to traffic accidents are increasing each year causing grinding social, economic, and health problems. Due to their high volume and lack of protective-shells, more than half of road traffic deaths are imputed to vulnerable road users (VRUs): pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Mobile devices combined with fog computing can provide feasible solutions to protect VRUs by predicting collusions and warning users of an imminent traffic accident. Mobile devices’ ubiquity and high computational capabilit…

Energy performance of architectural heritage: characteristics of the historic buildings in Palermo

2015

The current researches on the energy and environmental improvement of historic architecture aim to develop strategies respectful of its aesthetic and material features. This requires a deep knowledge of the characters strictly connected to a local context. This paper focuses on the historic architecture of Palermo and analyses, among its features, those which particularly influence its energy and environmental performance. For this purpose the building typologies introduced by the urban regulations can be useful for a categorization on the basis of the most recent European researches.

Design of a LLC Resonant Converter for Powering a PEM Electrolyzer

2021

International audience; This paper proposes the design of a LLC resonant converter to supply a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. The PEM requires a low voltage with high current, a reduced output voltage ripple, and an overdamped dynamic behavior of the converter to avoid voltage overshoots. The designed converter allows satisfying the design constraints, minimizing switching and reverse recovery losses; the efficiency is influenced mainly by the output rectifier's conduction losses.

The effect of (negative) emotion on pro-environmental behavior : an application of the theory of planned behavior

2016

With climate change becoming ever-present as a huge environmental issue for the modern era to address, pro-environmental behavior (PEB) is becoming an increasingly relevant area. There seems to be a divergence between how different actors try and encourage PEB when using emotion as the motivational tool. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore this effect of (negative) emotion on decision making. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as the theoretical framework, with the primary research aim testing whether emotion affects the theory, and if this is a direct effect on intentions. Within the existing research, environmental values are also found to be potentially linked with t…

ENERGY RETROFIT AND SUSTAINIBILITY. SOCIAL HOUSING ESTATE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CLIMATE

2013

In the last years the global attention has increasingly been focusing on climate change and on the depletion of non-renewable energy sources. Recent analyses estimate that the building sector, with construction and activities that allow its normal functioning, is responsible for 50% of global CO2 emissions. In contemporary urban areas, post-war housing estates represent a great percentage of the whole building sector and the amount of new housing produced in EU each year is equivalent to 1% of the whole building stock, which indicates the importance of focusing the attention on the recovery of existing buildings and the optimization of their energetic performances. The paper will show the f…