Title of Example

  Municipal energy plan for the City of Venice

Example

   

Introduction

The Municipality of Venice long ago started a policy of energy consumption control and the use of renewable energies, which has taken shape in the creation (initially with the Venetian Territorial and Environmental Services - VESTA, then also with the Province of Venice and the Municipal Public Transport Agency - ACTV) of the Venetian Agency for Energy (AGIRE). This Agency (http://www.ambiente.venezia.it/energia.asp) is the operative tool for the elaboration, promotion and realization of good practices and necessary actions to reach the objectives of energy efficiency inside and outside the public administrations which are its members.

At the same time, the Municipal Administration has drawn up the Municipal Energy Plan (PEC), approved in the Town Council session of 10/06/2003 and presented to the people in October 2003.

The planning process

The energy planning process which has been undertaken has gone far beyond an analysis of the city’s “energy bill”, in that it was conceived as an operative plan. In order to ensure constant updating, it has been organized as a “process plan”, adapted to being implemented over years with improvements and additions of new specific projects, at the same time asthe implementation of those already planned, in accordance with the city’s new demands and the use of new technologies.

In particular, by means of some consecutive steps that have involved the various stakeholders, there exists an historical analysis of energy consumption, the determination of the causes of this consumption and their possible future evolution, the projection of this evolutionin terms of new consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and the arrangement of guidelines (in a ten-year period) that will be able to orientate the evolution of the energy system towards better sustainability, identifying the operative tools and the subjects that could be involved in the planning process.

Thanks to the activation of a Forum (http://www.ambiente.venezia.it/forum/) on this topic, agreement protocols have been defined with large consumers of energy (in the field of transport, buildings, hotel, large household distribution, etc.) with the aim of defining the commitments to be met as regards procedures, actions and instruments aimed at the achievement of strategic goals and for the achievement of the expected actions of consumption rationalization, adoption of innovative technologies, information, education and public awareness.

Finally (by means of summary forms) specific actions that represent a first operational level (over a two-year period) of the plan and the agreements have been identified. Each form has a different objective that deals with the reduction of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions for the protection of global climate, to reach the goals given in the Kyoto Protocol.

The concrete accomplishment of the projects described in the forms and the management of the protocols is entrusted to the Venetian Agency for Energy and, as regards the actions relating to the town patrimony, to the Town Energy Manager.

The economic resources

An opportunity for economic support is given by the new ministerial decrees (DM 04/24/2001 "Identification of the quantitative objects for an energy efficiency increase in the final uses according to the Art. 9, paragraph 1, of the legislative decree 03/16, n. 79" and DM 04/24/2001 on "Identification of the national quantitative objectives of energy saving and the development of renewable sources according to Art.16, paragraph 4, of the legislative decree 05/23/2000, n. 164"), that require the power and gas distributors to co-finance projects of energy saving, quantified in Energy Efficiency Bonds for which a real new market is opening.

The actions

The action “forms” contained in the Energy Plan elaborated by the Municipality of Venice are the translation, into specific projects, of the objectives outlined by the Plan in terms of energy saving, local energy production from renewable sources and high-energy efficiency technologies.

The “forms” foresee the implementation of actions of different degrees of importance, but all of them indicate modalities, implementation times and responsibility for the described projects. Their aim is to influence the integration model between energy and environment, both in the upstream stage (of conception and preparation of legislation, public awareness and promotion), and the downstream stage of their practical enforcement to give definition to the perspectives of sustainability in the Municipality of Venice.

The actions are aimed at the:

· creation of new tools to adapt the present ones, to make energy systems more efficient and an integral part of public and private choices regarding the urban area;

· initiation of large scale actions involving widespread interests;

· initiation of actions for specific sectors or plants;

· creation of demonstration actions;

· creation of communication and public awareness actions.

The envisaged interventions for the action “forms” elaborated in the Plan, some of them already fulfilled or in progress, are:

Introduction of the “Energy” factor in the Municipal Building Regulation

Objective: to study the different possibilities for the adjustment of the Municipal Building Regulation so as to take into account the energy factor by means of rules and advice on building that establish general technical-building and plant criteria, are likely to help and make the most of energy saving and use of renewable sources for heating/cooling systems, the production of sanitary hot/cool water, lighting, electric household equipment in buildings according with their intended purpose.

· Integration of Municipality of Venice tenders with a “bio-building section"

Objective: to adopt an operative instrument which contains indications on how to promote a sustainable-type building and which takes care to balance a number of parameters which are difficult to assess, such as the harmlessness of the materials used in the buildings, their traceability and the possibility of recycling, the energy costs in the plant choices, etc.

· Would you change (habits)? – Consumption, environment, energy saving, lifestyle

Objective: to reduce and re-orient consumption through information and public awareness strategies (on the global impact of consumption and the opportunities of an aware and conscious consumption) and by the adoption of more fair and sustainable lifestyles.

· Analysis of the energy efficiency in public buildings

Objective: to analyze the energy efficiency of public buildings to define an action plan aimed at reducing consumption.

· Promotion of the “blue coupon” system

Objective: to promote the dissemination of emission control systems also where it is not compulsory and to make the other consumers more aware (where it is already compulsory)

· Promotion and implementation of the "car sharing" system

Objective: to promote and implement the use of "car sharing" to reduce the use of private cars and therefore of consumption.

· Seminars and technical training courses on energy saving

Objective: to conduct a cycle of seminars and technical training courses regarding energy saving strategies for technicians, professionals and operators in the building sector.

· Implementation of a system of checks on the compulsory maintenance of domestic heating systems

Objective: to implement a system of checks on r the compulsory maintenance of heating systems according to law 01/09/1991 n. 10 and to D.P.R. 08/26/1993 n. 412 amended by D.P.R. 12/21/1999 n. 551.

· Realization of a teleheating network

Objective: Venice has a great thermoelectric generation potential that is developed mainly with four power stations (located in the Porto Marghera industrial area) totalling over 2000 MW. The feasibility study on the teleheating network envisages that the system be supplied with the heat produced by ENEL S.p.A. and EDISON Thermoelectric power plants. The areas which are suitable as potential users of the teleheating network are, within a urban and mobility plan, in the areas of Porto Marghera and Mestre. In total, 12 areas have been chosen and analyzed and the buildings are, for the most part yet to be built,. The areas involved are almost completely made up of future buildings intended for the service sector. The system could be implemented in different stages.

· Development of oxycombustion in the glass district of Murano

Objective: to substitute natural gas/oxygen for the traditional air/natural gas combustion of the glass ovens.. Thus, by eliminating almost completely the presence of nitrogen, contained in the combustion air in high quantity (about 80 %), it is possible to increase the calorific power of the fuel, obtaining a flame characterized by higher temperatures and allowing a better conveyance of heat to the oven and the glass.

· Production of electric power by means of combustion cells fuelled by hydrogen produced by a photovoltaic field on the islands of Certosa and/or Lazzaretto Nuovo (in the Venetian Lagoon)

Objective: to verify the reliability and energy efficiency of an electric power production system with zero emissions in the atmosphere. The system consists of a photovoltaic field for the production of electric power for use partly directly by the final usersand partly for hydrogen production for the fuelling of the combustion cells.

· Installation of radiant heating panels

Objective: to install radiant heating panels on 7 municipal buildings and on State buildings assigned to the island of Isola del Lazzaretto Nuovo (two different action forms).

· Installation of solar panels for the production of hot water

Objective: to install solar panels for the production of hot water in municipal nurseryschools. The plants will be built and operated during 2003, and during 2004 there will be an analysis of consumption in the buildings to evaluate the advantage in quantitative terms.

· Installation of a geothermic heating system in the Chirignago nursery school (on the mainland of the Venetian Municipality)

Objective: Installation of a heating system with an earth-air pump (geothermic) in order to reduce energy use for winter heating and summer cooling.

· Realization of a demonstration “green roof”

Objective: implementation of a green roof on the Public Green and Land Department Office Building (in Mestre), aiming to reduce the radiant energy of the environment by means of a roof garden, thermally isolating the building with energy saving both for cooling and heating.

· Methane project

Objective: to promote the development of natural gas for motor transport by the commercial operators and people and goods transport trade, as well as for natural gas distribution network development (by means of subscription to the pact on agreement to the “natural gas Project”, with reference to the Programme Agreement dated 12.05.2001 by Environment Ministry, Fiat S.p.A. and Italian Oil Union).

· Use of hybrid minibuses

Objective: to promote the use of electric hybrid minibuses for public transport.

· Installation of photovoltaic panels at the ACTV depot in Marghera (via Martiri della Libertą)

Objective: to increase energy self-production by mean of photovoltaic panels installed on the existing busshelter of the depot in addition to the already existing and operating co-generation system.

· Mestre Wood

Objective: to create a big green park close to the highly urbanized area (residential area, ring-road, Porto Marghera) that could compensate for the CO2 emissions, as well as an exploitable energy resource (the wood maintenance by-products) for the biomass that it will be able to produce.

· Installation of a biomass teleheating system

Objective: to install a biomass teleheating system in the Bissuola district (Mestre)

· Solar boat

Objective: implementation of a radiant heating-panel tourist boat for the Lagoon Park area.

· Use of hydrogen in Porto Marghera

Objective: with the implementation of the “Porto Marghera Hydrogen District Union”, the exploitation of the hydrogen resource available in the Porto Marghera area will be carried out. Hydrogen combustion, both in stationary applications for the co-generation of electric and thermal energy and for applications in the field of transport, can be realized both with traditional equipment (turbines and internal combustion engines) or with innovative combustion cells.

· Adoption of integral winter/summer conditioning radiation and primary air systems for the new IRE Structures (Public Housing).

Objective: the adoption of global climatization solutions with radiant panels on the ceiling, integrated with a system of forced air renewal, along with relativemean humidity control of the environment during winter and summer, is suggested.

Urban Energy Plan: full text document in Italian language


Last Updated


 

13th January 2005

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