An Evaluation Framework for Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhoods: Moving Beyond the Traditional Building Energy Assessment

Jaume Salom, Meril Tamm, Inger Andresen, Davide Cali, Ábel Magyari, Viktor Bukovszki, Rebeka Balázs, Paraskevi Vivian Dorizas, Zsolt Toth, Sheikh Zuhaib, Clara Mafé, Caroline Cheng, András Reith, Paolo Civiero, Jordi Pascual and Niki Gaitani
Additional contact information
Jaume Salom: Thermal Energy and Building Performance Group, Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), 08930 Sant Adrià de Besós, Spain
Meril Tamm: Thermal Energy and Building Performance Group, Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), 08930 Sant Adrià de Besós, Spain
Inger Andresen: Department of Architecture and Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491 Trondheim, Norway
Davide Cali: Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Ábel Magyari: Advanced Building and Urban Design Ltd., 1123 Budapest, Hungary
Viktor Bukovszki: Advanced Building and Urban Design Ltd., 1123 Budapest, Hungary
Rebeka Balázs: Advanced Building and Urban Design Ltd., 1123 Budapest, Hungary
Paraskevi Vivian Dorizas: BPIE—Buildings Performance Institute Europe, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Zsolt Toth: BPIE—Buildings Performance Institute Europe, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Sheikh Zuhaib: BPIE—Buildings Performance Institute Europe, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Clara Mafé: Housing Europe, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Caroline Cheng: SINTEF Community, 7034 Trondheim, Norway
András Reith: Advanced Building and Urban Design Ltd., 1123 Budapest, Hungary
Paolo Civiero: Thermal Energy and Building Performance Group, Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), 08930 Sant Adrià de Besós, Spain
Jordi Pascual: Thermal Energy and Building Performance Group, Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), 08930 Sant Adrià de Besós, Spain
Niki Gaitani: Department of Architecture and Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491 Trondheim, Norway

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-25

Abstract: There are international activities and on-going initiatives, particularly at the European level, to define what Positive Energy Districts should be, as the driving concept for the urban transition to a sustainable future. The first objective of the paper is to contribute to the on-going and lively debate about the definition of the notion of Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhood (SPEN), which highlights the multiple dimensions when talking about sustainability in districts moving beyond the traditional and strict building energy assessment. Based on a holistic methodology which ensures the consideration of the multidimensional nature and goals of SPEN, the paper outlines an evaluation framework. The evaluation framework defines the key performance indicators distributed in five categories that consider energy and power performance, GHG emissions, indoor environmental quality, smartness, flexibility, life cycle costs and social sustainability. This framework is designed to be implemented during integrated design processes aiming to select design options for a neighbourhood as well within during the operational phase for monitoring its performance. Further work will include the implementation and validation of the framework in four real-life positive energy neighbourhoods in different climate zones of Europe as part of syn.ikia H2020 project.

Keywords: neighbourhoods; positive energy districts; sustainable urban areas; energy production; energy efficiency; energy flexibility; economic costs; indoor environmental quality; social performance (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: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4314/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4314/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:14:p:4314-:d:596314

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().