1,720,971 research outputs found
L'efficacia degli incentivi negli interventi di retrofit energetico di edifici pubblici. Il caso delle Regioni italiane dell'"Obiettivo Convergenza" = The efficiency of the incentives for the public buildings energy retrofit. The case of the Italian regions of the "objective convergence"
No full textThe objective of energy use and emissions reductions, enunciated in many European Directives, has emphasized the need to promote the improvement of energy efficiency of existing buildings. Local administrations, in particular, should submit their own buildings to energy retrofit, not only to respect the Directives, but also to make those buildings an example of an active environmental culture and to induce similar improvement in private buildings, on the basis of financial appraisal of feasibility, which can be facilitated by incentives. The "Unione Province di Italia" (UPI) in 2013, within the POI Energy (Interregional Operative Program), requested energy audits and projects of the energy retrofit for 150 public buildings located in the 4 Italian Regions of the "Objective Convergence" (Campania, Puglia, Calabria and Sicily). In this study, a methodological proposal is elaborated, including a Cash Flow Analysis and an analysis of risk and uncertainty through the Monte Carlo method, to appraise the cost-effectiveness of retrofit actions in public buildings. The methodology is applied to a sample of 36 actions and it allows getting some economic-financial indicators (Net Present Value NPV and Payback Period) able to support the public decision process for selecting the best alternatives to be realized. The evaluation model is direct to search those conditions that assure the profitability and to know how much the currently available incentives are a practical financial tool (not-refundable incentives of the Conto Termico 2.0, DM 16/02/2016). The financial analysis is integrated with a risk analysis, which evaluates the sensibility of the results to the inputs of the model. The results of the study show that: a category of actions never get the financial profitability; some actions have a positive NPV but a quite long Payback Period (higher than 15 years) only with the adequate incentives; finally, a category of actions has a positive NPV and short Payback Period (lower than 16 years) and are even profitable under low favorable market conditions. This last category could be particularly attractive for the Public Administration that intends to make actions that reach energy saving and economic-financial profitability
Energy Communities in Urban Areas: Comparison of Energy Strategy and Economic Feasibility in Italy and Spain
Get PDFEnergy communities using renewable energy sources directly contributes to reduction of climate-change gas emissions and energy consumption in the European Union. In addition, energy communities enable citizens to transform from (passive) consumers to prosumers (active consumers and producers) and to play a proactive role in the deployment of energy transition in urban areas. As the transposition of European rules about energy communities into the national laws of EU Member States is very articulated and differentiated, this study proposes a framework to analyze and compare regulatory and financial instruments. This framework is applied to the analysis of the case of Italy and Spain, as representative of European states in which collective actions in the energy sector are not very common, with the aim of highlighting the main critical issues affecting the effectiveness of energy transition strategies and assessing the economic feasibility for energy communities. Analyzing regulations and procedures, including at the local level, it appears that municipalities play an important role as promoters of initiatives among citizen communities, while complex bureaucratic procedure is the most critical issue in both countries and can significantly hinder the spread of energy communities. With respect to the different financial incentives available for the formation of energy communities in Italy and Spain, a few cases studies are hypothesized, calculating the most relevant cost-effectiveness indicators, e.g. Net Present Value. It turns out that a project with the same characteristics achieves greater economic feasibility in Italy than in Spain, depending on the type and size of incentives set by national laws, and, above all, that financial incentives are necessary to make the formation of energy communities cost-effective and thus to achieve direct citizen involvement in energy transition actions
Towards a participatory energy transition. Critical issues and potentials of regulatory and financial instruments for Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) in Italy [Verso una transizione energetica partecipativa. Criticità e potenzialità degli strumenti normativi e finanziari per le Comunità Energetiche Rinnovabili (CER) in Italia]
Get PDFThe energy transition towards an economic model based on energy from renewable sources is considered a priority of strategic importance for the development of the European Union and Italy. In this context, Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) represent an opportunity to accelerate the decarbonisation process, to increase energy self-consumption and to replace centralised and hierarchical power plants with distributed and collaborative ones. This study aims to analyse how decarbonisation objectives are incorporated into national and regional regulatory and financial instruments that support the establishment of RECs. Starting from the comparison between the characteristics of REC and those of other energy community models with respect to a plurality of spheres (specifically, environmental, legal, economic-financial, technical, social and administrative spheres), the study provides a systematised framework of the advantages/disadvantages that influence the decision to invest in setting up a REC, and identifies the main critical issues that must be differentially addressed by the promoters, depending on whether they are public or private actors, assessing them through a system of nomenclators obtained following a focus group of experts. Furthermore, the analysis of regulations and available data on active RECs showed that Local Administrations play a central role in the dissemination of RECs, but also that the implementation of a sustainable and inclusive energy transition in the territories is hindered by a low level of social participation due to lack of knowledge of the benefits provided by RECs as well as actual difficulties for citizens to access REC projects, especially in their role as promoters
Market Values and Socioeconomic Mixité in Palermo. The Role of Migrants in the Commercial Real Estate Market
No full textSocioeconomic and functional mixité has been an objective placed at the basis of urban development to guide the transformation processes of urban areas, associating it with social inclusion as opposed to the morphological and spatial segregation, often caused by monofunctional zoning. The implementation of social mixité involves all social groups and, particularly, migrant communities that, in turn, are formed by groups with different cultures, nationalities, resources and income levels. The location choices of migrants and native residents produce an ever-changing urban geography of residential, commercial and service activities that directly impact on the real estate market. Migrants’ active participation in the urban mixité reaches its highest degree of social visibility in their use of commercial properties located on main streets, where they compete and/or cooperate with native-operated businesses. This study investigated the use of commercial properties in three main streets of Palermo during 2018-2020 to analyze the evolution of functional and socioeconomic mixité. The findings show what capacity migrant communities have to permeate the urban fabric with their commercial activities and to participate in the local real estate market currently characterized by high vacancy rates
Migrants, Retail Properties and Historic Centre. Urban and Economic Resilience in Palermo (Italy)
No full textMigratory flows arriving in the countries of the European Union over the recent years have generated significant urban, social and economic transfor- mations, especially in metropolitan areas. Although with different intensity, the increase of new cultures and ethnic groups living in Italy has led to changes in both social value system and urban economic dynamism, generating consequences also on the real estate market. In order to analyze urban dynamics linked to migration flows, this study focuses on the retail properties used for inner-city shops owned/managed by immigrants. In particular, the city of Palermo (Italy) is chosen as a case study due to its multicultural stratification that is particularly complex in the historic centre. This study highlights also the resilience of foreign business activities after the Covid-19 pandemic emergency and their contribution to the production of social wealth
Public and Private Economic Feasibility of Green Areas as a Passive Energy Measure: A Case Study in the Mediterranean City of Trapani in Southern Italy
Get PDFGreen infrastructure in urban environments provides a wide range of ecological, social, aesthetic, and health co-benefits. Urban plant covers in particular contribute to improved outdoor environmental conditions that, in turn, influence the energy behavior of buildings and their indoor thermo-hygrometric comfort performance. Within this context, this study illustrates a methodology aimed at verifying the economic feasibility of alternative types of green areas for public and private stakeholders, which are analyzed as passive energy measures. Therefore, our methodology integrates approaches from different disciplines and consists of a microclimatic analysis of different vegetation scenarios and of the outdoor comfort level, an evaluation of the energy needs of a sample of houses, and an economic feasibility estimation considering different scenarios and public and private investors. The methodology is illustrated through its application to a suburban district of the Sicilian city of Trapani in the South of Italy, considered representative of Mediterranean climate conditions. Results showed significant differences between the scenario outcomes depending on the type of vegetation used in the green areas and put in evidence how economic feasibility for some stakeholders may be achieved in the management phase if adequate incentives equal to the planting cost are assumed
Smart city ed efficientamento energetico: opportunità e sfide dall’European Green Deal e dai programmi europei
No full textL'efficienza energetica è diventata un argomento centrale nella pianificazione e nella gestione urbana a causa del cambiamento climatico globale e delle emergenze ambientali. L'articolo analizza i modelli e le procedure che sono stati testati nel gruppo MySmartCityProgram da diversi programmi europei che promuovono misure innovative di efficienza energetica a scala di quartiere. L'analisi dei casi studio del Programma ZenN, in particolare, ha evidenziato che struttura della proprietà, erogazione di fondi pubblici e disponibilità di finanziamenti bancari sono i principali fattori critici per raggiungere o ostacolare la fattibilità finanziaria. In vista delle fasi di implementazione del Green Deal europeo che, tra le varie azioni, intende avviare una "ondata di rinnovamento" delle città e degli edifici, i risultati dello studio potrebbero essere un buon punto di partenza per discutere come progettare le procedure, gli standard e gli strumenti più adeguati per facilitare questo tipo di progetti.Energy efficiency has become a central topic in urban planning and management because of the global climate change and environmental emergencies. The paper analyzes the models and procedures that have been tested in the MySmartCityProgram group according to different European Programs that promote innovative energy efficiency measures at district scale. The study of the case studies of the ZenN Program, in particular, has showed that structure of the property, provision of public funds and availability of bank financing are the main critical factors to achieve or hinder the financial feasibility. In view of the implementation phases of the European Green Deal which, among various actions, intends to start a ‘wave of renovation’ of cities and buildings, the results of the study could be a good starting point to discuss how to design the most appropriate procedures, standards and tools to facilitate this type of projects
The Financial Costs in Energy Efficient District. Alternative Scenarios from the Demo Sites of the CITyFiED Program
Get PDFThe European Union’s environmental policies actively promote the transition to a low-carbon society and to sustainable energy systems that improve people’s quality of life and do not negatively impact the natural environment. To achieve these goals, the European Union funded several programs to pilot energy efficiency measures for buildings and districts and, lately, launched the European Green Deal. The results of these experimentations have shown that often the economic feasibility of retrofitting interventions is not achieved without public grants. This contribution aims to analyze the influence of financial parameters on the profitability of projects of energy efficient districts. The study is based on the data from the demo sites of the CITyFiED program (Soma in Turkey and Laguna de Duero in Spain) that are reworked according to new several alternative scenarios, differentiated by cost financing and amount of public grants
Values, cities and migrations. Real estate market and social system in a multi-cultural city
No full textThe book consists of seventeen papers in two parts. The first part, “Values and Relationship Systems in Multicultural Societies”, features how social sciences––including appraisal and valuation, urban planning, philosophy, psychology, and geography––take different approaches to studying values and relationships, converging to form a unified mosaic of complementary and interconnected knowledge. The second part, “Transformations, Permeability and Permanence of Values in Contemporary Multicultural Cities”, highlights the most crucial topics on which appraisals and models focus to interpret and represent the influence of migration on the real estate market in different urban and territorial contexts, from historical centers, small towns, to tourist cities, also taking into account sustainability, maintenance and regeneration of cities
Social Housing and Affordable Rent: The Effectiveness of Legal Thresholds of Rents in Two Italian Metropolitan Cities
Get PDFSocial housing is an instrument of housing policies to support those groups of people who are disadvantaged due to particular economic weaknesses and/or social relational fragility. Consequently, to achieve the objective of social sustainability, the rents of social housing must be below the market rents and low enough to be affordable. Italian law has set several rent thresholds which are based on local territorial agreements between landlords and renters associations. This article aims to examine whether these thresholds generate social fairness and housing affordability within each city and between different cities, or instead inequalities and spatial asymmetries. A cluster analysis is applied to study whether the goal of fairness is achieved, while the effectiveness of providing housing affordability is assessed by comparing the benchmarked rents with those of the national ministerial Real Estate Market Observatory. Two metropolitan cities—one in the north and another in the south of Italy—with different social and economic characteristics were chosen as case studies. The results show that variations in rents, location, and housing quality are fairly consistent within urban areas and cities. However, the benchmarked rents are not consistently related to the market rents and are often higher than the latter, failing to meet the provision of affordable housing that was the primary goal of the law
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