Urbanism and energy

Arquitects

Urbanism and energy

By Aiguasol ⋅ January 15, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Filed Under building-energy-optimization, cogeneration, CSP, energy-audits, energy-certification, hospitals and health centers, Industrial, industry-and-energy, Neighborhoods, office buildings, Other tertiary, other-custom-solutions, photovoltaic-systems, residential, software-development, Solar-cooling, solar-thermal-energy, urbanism-and-energy

Analysis of urban layout, construction types, location of uses or architectural solutions to produce efficient neighborhood systems and the drafting of specific ordinances to minimize the global energy impact.

It is often difficult to improve the energy performance of buildings if some issues have not been previously considered during the different phases of urban planning. Although these upstream interventions have a greater impact on the final outcome, both in terms of primary energy consumption (and associated emission levels) and in economic terms, the introduction of energy as an overarching theme to keep in mind from early stages of urban planning is still a pending issue.

Multidisciplinary nature

The work of urban planning requires, by its nature, the combination of various disciplines. Often, the knowledge required to incorporate energy efficiency and efficient systems criteria is beyond urban designers, who are generalists. In these cases, the integration into the design team of a figure who has the tools, expertise and experience will be necessary.

Energy optimization of passive elements on urban planning phases

With respect to passive elements, the energy consultant can get involved in initial stages with the goal of reducing energy demands. In a previous phase, we can work on aspects such as orientation, the height, densities and layout of buildings, or form aspects. Subsequently, after analysis of the types of buildings included in the urban development, the energy demand scenario is determined allowing us to define and analyze the effect of various proposals for improvement, such as control of natural ventilation, solar protection elements, improvement of the coefficient of thermal transmittance, improvement of the modified solar factor, or other measures that may be required by specific legislation or through promoting good practices guidelines for future building designers.

Efficient energy systems at the neighborhood level

In relation to the active elements, once energy demands are optimized at the neighborhood level, we analyze their profile and form to study different options for energy production and distribution that best fit the scenario. In this sense, we can integrate centralized production systems to meet energy demands beyond the scale of a building. It is therefore necessary to determine demand intensity maps, propose groupings of demand, proceed to the optimized design of the network or distribution networks and propose different technological options.

The work done to reduce energy demands and the conception of an efficient production system is linked to the energy certification of the buildings, to raise the global outcome to a specific letter on the energy rating scale.

Urbanism, to seek the general interest, should harmonize public and private interests of various kinds and it is good to leave a broad framework for action by individuals and not condition everything to the very last detail. In this regard it is worthwhile to establish a framework that encourages individual users to achieve improvements in terms of energy consumption, leaving them with a margin of freedom.