Best Practices for Recovering Rural Abandoned Towers through the Installation of Small-Scale Biogas Plants

Mattia Manni, Valentina Coccia, Gianluca Cavalaglio, Andrea Nicolini and Alessandro Petrozzi
Additional contact information
Mattia Manni: Department of Engineering, CIRIAF—Interuniversity Research Center on Pollution and Environment “Mauro Felli”, Via G. Duranti 67, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Valentina Coccia: Department of Engineering, CIRIAF—Interuniversity Research Center on Pollution and Environment “Mauro Felli”, Via G. Duranti 67, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Gianluca Cavalaglio: Department of Engineering, CIRIAF—Interuniversity Research Center on Pollution and Environment “Mauro Felli”, Via G. Duranti 67, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Andrea Nicolini: Department of Engineering, CIRIAF—Interuniversity Research Center on Pollution and Environment “Mauro Felli”, Via G. Duranti 67, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Alessandro Petrozzi: Department of Engineering, CIRIAF—Interuniversity Research Center on Pollution and Environment “Mauro Felli”, Via G. Duranti 67, 06125 Perugia, Italy

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 8, 1-13

Abstract: The massive and continuous development of renewable energy systems is making it possible to achieve the European goals regarding environment and sustainability. On the other hand, it leads to the progression of significant problems such as low renewable energy density (i), social acceptability (ii), and non-programmability of renewable energy sources (iii). The rural architecture, which is largely present in the countryside of central Italy, is generally equipped with several annexes such as dovecotes (i), grain stores (ii), and tobacco drying kilns (iii). Nowadays, those towers appear in decay because of the decline of agricultural activities, although they are classed as Environmental and Historical Heritage sites. The present work aims to propose a methodology for improving the energy grid in the countryside, while reusing abandoned buildings by modifying their function and maintaining their aspect as much as possible. The proposed workflow was applied to a rural silo, which has fallen into disuse, in Sant’Apollinare (Marsciano, Perugia) by converting it into a mini-biogas plant. The function of the annex which was chosen as the case study changes from agricultural use to energy production: it becomes an on-site renewable energy-based electric grid that can produce clean energy from agricultural and forestry residues. The project turns out to be sustainable not only in terms of energy and the environment, but also from an economic point of view as a result of the recent regulations and incentives for renewable energy production.

Keywords: rural architecture; biogas; renewable energy; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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