1,721,189 research outputs found
'Photovoltaic landscapes': Design and assessment. A critical review for a new transdisciplinary design vision
No full textGround-mounted large photovoltaic (PV) arrays are the least-cost design solution for installing PV, they account for the majority of the solar power installed today. With the increase of both the number and size of installations, the attention to their impacts in terms of land-use and land-transformation is growing, as well as concerns about landscape preservation and possible losses of ecosystem services. The community acceptance is often a barrier. The current design is generally straight-forward and is aimed to the maximize energy generation given a certain land area. This paper brings forward the idea that PV systems should be designed as an element of the landscape they belong to, according to an 'inclusive' design approach that does not focus only on the overall energy efficiency of the system, but extends to other additional ecological and landscape objectives. An original energy-design vision for on-ground PV is advanced, rooted in an original concept of 'photovoltaic landscape'. An understanding of PV landscapes in terms of patterns is given, and new patterns for PV are investigated. Based on literature new patterns for PV are assessed quantitatively in terms of land use energy intensity; and qualitatively in terms of perception-esthetics related aspects. Design domain freedom and boundary restrictions have been investigated with reference to possible negative and positive overall ecological performances; the weight of each design parameter has been qualitatively assessed, so that some first design guidelines could be formulated. Furthermore, a first quantitative approach for calculating the life cycle costs of the energy generated from PV landscapes, focusing on land use, has been proposed. The study argues that new patterns would help in allowing a better ecological performance of the PV landscape, and opens many research questions, such as the quantitative assessment of the ecological beneficial impacts generated by new PV patterns. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Design of net zero energy buildings: Feedback from international projects
No full textThe International Energy Agency (IEA), through the Solar Heating and Cooling programme (SHC) Task 40 and the Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems programme (ECBCS, now named EBC) Annex 52, works towards developing a common understanding and setting up the basis for an international definition framework for Net Zero Energy Buildings (Net ZEBs). One of the subtasks of this programme -SubTaskC focuses benchmarking the Net ZEBs around the world to identify the innovative solutions sets that makes up this new type of building. This paper presents an overview of the work conducted by the participants of Subtask C and of Zero Energy Building projects that have been identified
Photovoltaics' architectural and landscape design options for Net Zero Energy Buildings, towards Net Zero Energy Communities: Spatial features and outdoor thermal comfort related considerations
No full textNet Zero Energy Building (NetZEB) design has become a crucial topic of research in recent years. Because of its complexity, discussion has been carried out on methodological criteria useful to define and assess NetZEBs (building system boundary, conversion factors, energy balance, interaction with the grid, monitoring, etc.), mainly with the engineering approach, and a number of case studies worldwide have been investigated. In regard to photovoltaics' (PV) design, research demonstrated the following: (1) PV is an indispensable technology for meeting the net zero energy target; (2) meeting the target of the net zero energy balance at the architectural scale (by using only the surfaces of the building envelope to place renewables) is very difficult and therefore (3) an extension of the balance boundary to a wider scale is needed. That is the concept of NetZEB should be advanced towards the one of Net Zero Energy Communities (NetZECs). In view of such an enlargement of the design domain, this paper investigates architectural and landscape design options (spatial features and outdoor thermal comfort considerations) for PV, on the basis of the analysis of case studies collected and assessed in the framework of the International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme-Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme (SHC-EBC) Task 40-Annex 52 Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings. Considering that the traditional understanding of the use of PV in buildings, mainly rooted in technological and morphological considerations, is not sufficient to describe all the issues emerging from this analysis, this paper is a contribution for setting a new cognitive framework in view of PV design for NetZECs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Photovoltaics and zero energy buildings: A new opportunity and challenge for design
No full textStarting from the end of 2020, all new buildings will have to be Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (Nearly ZEBs - ED 2010/31/EU recast). This new 'energy paradigm' might be a revolution for architecture and for Photovoltaics (PV) too, but there are both cultural and technical obstacles to overcome. There is a need to re-think the way buildings are designed (integrating renewables for being ZE). There is a need to re-think the way PV is designed in buildings. PV will be gaining an increasing relevance in the ZEBs design, thanks to its features and potentialities (suitability for any kind of energy demand of the building, easiness of building integration, cost). In a ZEB scenario, PV is very suitable for generating energy, 'on site' and 'at site'; this enlarges the perspective of use of PV from the architectural scale to a wider scale, including the space close to the building or even to the urban and landscape scale. In such a new context, the existing research on the relationships between PV and architecture, focusing mainly on the way the PV components are used in relation to the envelope (Building-integrated PV/Building-added (Attached) PV), is no longer sufficient. The authors envision possible formal results, opportunities and challenges, for the use of PV in ZEBs, as well as new research issues for the future relationships between PV and ZEBs from the architecture and landscape design point of view. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Introducing 'PEARL-PV': Performance and Reliability of Photovoltaic Systems: Evaluations of Large-Scale Monitoring Data
No full textThis paper will introduce a recently initiated COST Action entitled PEARL-PV and show its4-year research and work plan with the aim to create exposure, receive feedback from various stakeholders and involve new participants to this research network. PEARL-PV has started at theend of 2017 with the aim to improve the energy performance and reliability of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems in Europe leading to lower costs of electricity produced by PV systems by a higher energy yield, a longer life time eventually beyond the guaranteed 20 years as specified by manufacturers, and a reduction in the perceived risk in investments in PV projects. This objective will be achieved by analyzing data of the actual monitored long-term performancedefects and failures in PV systems installed all over Europe to quantitatively determine the absolute influences of components rated performance, key design of systems, installation, operation, maintenance practice, geographic location and weather factors on the performance, performance degradation over time and failure modes of these PV systems. It is very important to ensure the performance of PV systems to achieve long-term goals for PV systems in the future single energy market such as: Economic viability, securing investments, environmental sustainability and security and predictability of supply. The PEARL-PV project aims at the formation of aninclusive network of PV system researchers, data resources that will be analyzed by researchers and experts that can include more-nuanced evidence-based reliability in PV system evaluationmethods and simulation and design tools. © 2018 IEEE
Design issues for net zero-energy buildings
No full textNet Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEBs) have received increased attention in recent years as a result of constant concerns about energy supply constraints, decreasing energy resources, increasing energy costs and the rising impact of greenhouse gases on world climate. Promoting whole building strategies that employ passive measures together with energy efficient systems and technologies using renewable energy became a European political strategy following the publication of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive recast in May 2010 by the European Parliament and Council. However designing successful NZEBs represents a challenge because the definitions are somewhat generic while assessment methods and monitoring approaches remain under development and the literature is relatively scarce about the best sets of solutions for different typologies and climates likely to deliver an actual and reliable performance in terms of energy balance (consumed vs generated) on a cost-effective basis. Additionally the lessons learned from existing NZEB examples are relatively scarce. The authors of this paper, who are participants in the IEA SHC Task 40-ECBCS Annex 52, "Towards Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings", are willing to share insights from on-going research work on some best practice leading NZEB residential buildings. Although there is no standard approach for designing a Net Zero-Energy Building (there are many different possible combinations of passive and efficient active measures, utility equipment and on-site energy generation technologies able to achieve the net-zero energy performance), a close examination of the chosen strategies and the relative performance indicators of the selected case studies reveal that it is possible to achieve zero-energy performance using well known strategies adjusted so as to balance climate drivendemand for space heating/cooling, lighting, ventilation and other energy uses with climate-driven supply from renewable energy resources
How net zero energy buildings and cities might look like? New challenges for passive design and renewables design
No full textThis paper deals with new considerations about the design of Net Zero Energy Buildings and Net Zero Energy Neighbourhoods in the future. The perspectives presented here are the results from an international work named Task40/Annex52 "Towards Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings" conducted within the framework of the International Energy Agency (SHC-EBC) and in particular from the sub-group working on Solution Sets and case studies. We will see through case studies in different climates that the design scale to reach the Zero Energy goal is not the building anymore. The design of renewables as well as passive strategies must be extended to the whole neighbourhood
A Trans-Disciplinary Vocabulary for Assessing the Visual Performance of BIPV
Full text linkIt is widely acknowledged that the visual dimension of photovoltaics (PV) is fundamental for social acceptance. In this sense, the so-called Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) is a possible catalyzer, as PV is hidden (integrated) into building envelope morphologies that are familiar to the public. It is crucial to be able to design and assess a BIPV system so that its visual performance is optimal. Many studies exist in this regard, but still they do not deliver a clear theoretical organization of the concepts used for defining the visual performance of BIPV. This paper elaborates a trans-disciplinary systemic formalization of BIPV and proposes a vocabulary focusing on the formal perception of BIPV as a part of the building’s envelope system. The proposed vocabulary is based on a set of 11 visual keywords; as the proposed method unifies the formal and the cognitive information contents. It will facilitate the dialogue among different stakeholders (e.g., architects, clients, modules manufacturers, and public authorities) and, in general, the visual performance assessment of BIPV. In consequence, it allows for objective comparison and thus informed decision-making
When the mafia comes to town
Full text linkThis paper investigates the diffusion of organized crime in new areas by examining a legal practice in effect in Italy between 1956 and 1988, namely the power for the authorities to force mafiosi to relocate to another town. Using the variation in the number of relocated mafia members according to destination provinces in a difference-in-differences setting, I find no conclusive evidence on crime and a very robust positive impact on employment in the construction industry. I show that the effect is driven primarily by provinces that had a low ex-ante level of financial development, suggesting that mafias take advantage of investment opportunities in the construction sector that are left unexploited due to liquidity constraints
Property tax and property values: Evidence from the 2012 Italian tax reform
No full textThis paper assesses the extent to which property taxes are capitalized into property values, exploiting the 2012 Italian tax reform. Municipal-level variation in the level of the property tax rates is instrumented using the exogenous staggered timing of local elections. We show that the incumbent local governments with upcoming elections in 2013 shifted the composition of fiscal revenues towards lower property tax. Our 2SLS estimate shows that a one standard deviation increase in municipal-level property tax intensity leads to a 2.7% reduction of municipal property values in the year of the reform. We elicit information on the characteristics of the compliers and show that these municipalities feature inefficient public spending and low social capital
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