Brief description of the proposal

Faced with the struggling challenge to become the first carbon-neutral continent in 2050, Europe must act on the energy refurbishing of existing buildings, which represent the highest quota of its building stock. Actions in dense urban areas still represent open debate on optimal solutions in terms of reduction of carbon emissions and energy efficiency. The focus on an urban scale could allow for different types of buildings to offset their energy consumption and for the coordination of load shifting to improve renewable energy use, improving the energy performance of single buildings alone. 

A positive energy approach enlarged at district (PEDs) or neighborhood (PENs) level is being recognized among the most suitable solutions. Meanwhile, the program “Positive Energy Districts and Neighborhoods for Sustainable Urban Development” promoted by European Union aims to support the planning, deployment and replication of 100 Positive Energy Neighborhoods by 2025.

Despite this, the PED paradigm is still mostly applied to new pilot case constructions, and its applicability for the transition of the existing districts is rarely considered. The lack of knowledge on massive energy auditing and on load profiles of existing multi-owners' buildings, the difficulty in delimiting district boundaries, the heterogeneity of existing clusters and the integration of different renewable and energy storage systems are the main obstacles towards the implementation of PEDs in urban consolidated areas. Not surprisingly, urban energy communities also face multiple technical, administrative and social challenges. 

As a response to these challenges, the NETPLUS (Neighborhood Energy Transition: towards Positive energy baLance and carbon neUtral diStricts) project focuses on the development of new modelling tools and approaches for fostering the transition of existing urban areas into energy-efficient, flexible and carbon-free districts. The PED concept proposed in this project foresees integrated and interconnected buildings and districts, providing an efficient and flexible energy infrastructure (electrical, heating, cooling, gas grids, among others) enabling the use of energy sector coupling and the energy exchanges between prosumers in PEDs promoting integrated and holistic approaches through the optimization of the energy system. Innovative approaches for interoperability of new and existing technologies will be studied and implemented in the NETPLUS toolkit while pursuing a holistic approach including the environmental sustainability assessment from a life cycle perspective. 

NETPLUS will aim to support policy-makers, urban planners, and local stakeholders in the decision-making process of a PED constitution for existing urban districts by streamlining and aligning the spatial planning processes, developing digital planning strategies and providing optimized energy management models.

Tool for the technological design of PEDs 

In order to determine the operations and energy refurbishment actions needed to turn existing districts into PEDs, a specific design and simulation tool will be developed in this WP. The tool will be used to define the energy systems layout and configuration for each cluster of buildings archetype detailed in WP2 in order to achieve the annual positive energy balance of the district and its carbon neutrality. To these purposes, the tool will act as the basis for the early design of PEDs in existing districts, by supporting the integration of novel renewable-based plants to the existing ones, the definition of energy refurbishment actions properly suited to the context investigated as a function of users’ peculiarities and climatic conditions. WP3 will consist of three operative tasks linked to the deliverables.

1. Collection and/or development of energy systems components models

In this task, a large library of models for renewable-based energy plants (photovoltaic systems, photovoltaic thermal collectors, solar thermal collectors, wind turbines, geothermal systems, biomass-based plants) and energy storage systems (thermal, cold, and electric storages) will be collected and developed. Special attention will be paid to the multi-sector and innovative electric energy storage systems, including vehicles-to-grid and vehicles-to-building, power-to-heat, hydrogen and reversible fuel cells. The scope is to increase district flexibility in PEDs design.

2. Definition of possible PEDs layouts

This task aims to define an early design tool to identify the technologies and the design variables to be included in the proposed PEDs scenarios. Deterministic and heuristic algorithms will be adopted to fit the objective functions of positive energy balance and carbon neutrality, in order to find different alternative energy systems configurations.

3. Analysis of alternative PEDs layouts

The alternative solutions will be given as inputs to WP4 to permit the definition of the energy management operation dispatching strategies. Thus, the energy system configurations will be modelled and implemented in dynamic simulation software to mimic real conditions operation. Based on the obtained results, the optimal PED layout will be chosen. The output of this task will be useful to identify suitable guidelines for the selection of the best renewable-based energy systems layout and refurbishment actions as a function of buildings clusters features, user types, and climatic conditions.

Methodology 

From the methodological viewpoint, the project will be divided into six Work Packages (WP), corresponding to the goals of project coordination and management (WP1), PED characterization and environmental sustainability assessment (WP2), development of a tool for the technological design of PEDs (WP3), optimization and energy management of the positive energy surplus (WP4), testing new approaches using the infrastructure available in the participating universities, also enriched by other PNRR projects (WP5), and dissemination (WP6). These goals are organized in Work Packages according to a sub-divided structure in tasks.

Target of the project

The main objective of this proposal is to produce a tool and guidelines to allow for a sustainable and community-driven PED transition of the built environment, having a good understanding of the flexibility options resulted from smart energy management and implementation and by empowering local stakeholders. This will be achieved through the creation of a toolkit of solutions and outputs which will help in the energy transition and will help to create viable solutions to limit the environmental impacts of the existing communities.

The toolkit of solutions proposed by NETPLUS will be effective at multiple levels: 

• It will develop tools and solutions for modeling innovative components and tackling design challenges at the district level; 

• It will develop tools for supporting the early design of PEDs among practitioners; 

• It will assist in the development of capacity building and awareness raising within the end users and main PED stakeholders.

The innovative research focus will have the following objectives: 

• The development of specific and tailored integrated solutions for the achievement of PED in existing neighborhoods in southern Italy, to be replicable in similar climatic contexts; 

• The determination of environmental sustainability of district renovation towards the PED target; 

• The investigation of the replicability potential of the solutions proposed in some case studies analyzed in this project for other PEDs. 

The practitioners’ use is the focus for the development of early-design assessment tools and solutions to help. The scope is to provide them with tools that can support them with design of the renovation of existing districts towards PED, through a holistic perspective. 

Lastly, the approach proposed aims at disseminating knowledge and empowering the local communities through innovative and flexible PED assessment techniques.

Project impact

NETPLUS will ultimately develop guidelines for the development of low-carbon renovation strategies for existing districts to reach the target of PED. 

It will include the life cycle perspective and define purpose-built performance indicators within district areas considered an essential part of the urban transformation process, particularly in areas in which the historical and cultural heritage aspects are relevant. 

This project will also affect the social and economic spheres of sustainability, especially for low-income families. Indeed, the renovation solutions and the optimal technological design and operation of energy systems developed in this project will impact energy poverty, tackling the poor thermal comfort and energy performances of buildings, as well as contribute to have more affordable access to energy services.

Finally, the PED design process as conceived in NETPLUS will guarantee the active involvement of local stakeholders, extensive citizen engagement, and, therefore, higher participation in the local community, a condition that is considered a key pillar of the energy transition process toward PEDs.