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. 2020 Jun 20;17(12):4434.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17124434.

How to Prioritize Energy Efficiency Intervention in Municipal Public Buildings to Decrease CO2 Emissions? A Case Study from Italy

Filomena Pietrapertosa  1 , Marco Tancredi  2 , Michele Giordano  2 , Carmelina Cosmi  1 , Monica Salvia  1
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How to Prioritize Energy Efficiency Intervention in Municipal Public Buildings to Decrease CO2 Emissions? A Case Study from Italy

Filomena Pietrapertosa et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The European Union 2050 climate neutrality goal and the climate crisis require coordinated efforts to reduce energy consumption in all sectors, and mainly in buildings greatly affected by the increasing temperature, with relevant CO2 emissions due to inefficient end-use technologies. Moreover, the old building stock of most countries requires suited policies to support renovation programs aimed at improving energy performances and optimize energy uses. A toolbox was developed in the framework of the PrioritEE project to provide policy makers and technicians with a wide set of tools to support energy efficiency in Municipal Public Buildings. The toolbox, available for free, was tested in the partners' communities, proving its effectiveness. The paper illustrates its application to the Potenza Municipality case study in which the online calculator DSTool (the core instrument of the toolbox) was utilized to select and prioritize the energy efficiency interventions in public buildings implementable in a three-year action plan in terms of costs, energy savings, CO2 emissions' reduction and return on investments. The results highlight that improvements in the building envelopes (walls and roofs), heating and lighting and photovoltaic systems allow reducing CO2 emission approximately 644 t/year and saving about 2050 MWh/year with a total three-year investment of 1,728,823 EUR.

Keywords: Mediterranean (MED) regions; decision-making support tool; energy efficiency; public buildings energy optimization; public buildings renovation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Main components of the PrioritEE Toolbox.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Step-by-step procedure to implement a Local Action Plan using the PrioritEE DSTool.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Thermal and Electricity Consumptions of the selected MPBs: (a) compared to total values for the Municipality of Potenza; (b) per typology.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effects of the combination of all the measures in terms of: (a) Energy Savings; (b) ROI, (c) investment cost, and (d) CO2 emission reduction.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Total amount of (a) Energy Savings, (b) CO2 emission reduction, (c) ROI and (d) Investment cost per typology of intervention in the selected MPBs.
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