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Abstract: Urban neighborhoods could represent an optimal scale for the implementation of innovative energy strategies. However, barriers at the economic, regulatory and administrative level are still present. In this framework, it is important to operate on three levels of the energy system: by reducing energy demand; by optimizing generation and management system, and by integrating local renewable energy sources. In recent years, as a result of an important agreement with the Italian Ministry of Environment, Lombardy Region has supported numerous measures for energy efficiency and renewable resources integration among its territory. The funding supported different actions such as improvements of the buildings envelope, substitution of old gas boilers for heat generation with more efficient components, integration of solar thermal systems in buildings, hydrogen and more sustainable mobility, and district heating plants, which present contribution concerns. About district heating the incentives were provided within two different calls: one aimed at the creation of plants and district heating networks and another for the extension of existing systems. Main aim of the research is to evaluate effects, effectiveness, pros and cons of the several calls for funding; to that end a methodology was developed in order to collect the data and elaborate representative energy, environmental and economic indicators. The most important characteristics, conditions and technical features of the considered plants are described in the present paper trying to provide information on the effectiveness of the supporting measures taken in order to orient future choices and to identify the most promising strategies and technologies for improving energy and environmental performances of communities. In particular present paper is related to 10 district heating plants: 6 are based on biomass and located in mountain areas, 3 are based on natural gas and located in urban areas, while the last is connected to the urban waste to energy plant. One of the important lesson is learned is that district heating (fuelled by biomass, fossil, waste and CHP or not) represents an innovative field of knowledge far from standard: in general each plant has to be evaluated on the basis of specify characteristics and it is very hard to find out average performances from the environmental and economic point of view. The results obtained during the monitoring campaign could help in providing information on the effectiveness of the supporting measures adopted and also to orient future choices by Lombardy Region and, in particular, to identify the most promising technologies for improving energy and environmental performances of communities and to develop a model for the optimization of energy use in the built environment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Solar renovation of a training Centre at Casargo, Lecco, Italy was financed in 2006 by Lombardy Region in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano. The refurbishment programme interested the technical unit of the building and reduced thermal demand. The technology used for the roof refurbishment is an innovative system called TIS (Tetto Integrale Solarizzato); which means solar integrated roof and developed by the Italian company Seccosistemi under a research collaboration with Politecnico di Milano. TIS is a modular covering system with the option to insert the various types of solar energy modules, providing most suitable dimension and configuration for a specific application. The prototype of TIS system was studied by R&D programme carried out at the Politecnico di Milano aimed at the creation of a practical and flexible system, easy to install and maintain, that would allow the co-presence of hybrid photovoltaic thermal panels, air or water thermal collectors and non-energetic closure elements, in such a way as to be used the whole shell and not only those parts affected by solar installation. This paper presents the design details, energy performance and economic evaluation of solar integration roof of Casargo. The building is under mointoring phase. A comparision has been made between the monitored and simulated energy performance data. Further an economic analysis has been carried out to estimate financial benefits derived from the solar integration roof. Finally the estimations have been made regarding the avoided CO2 emissions and its cost. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The availability of solar radiation in phase with the seasonal as well as hourly cooling load profiles in most of the office buildings in the Mediterranean region, in addition to the large share of primary energy consumed for air- conditioning applications in office buildings create a high motivation for the utilization of solar cooling technology for such type of buildings. A solar heating and cooling system for an office building in Italy has been designed, installed and monitored within the framework of the EC co-funded project SOLERA aiming at developing highly integrated solar thermal heating and cooling system that is able to achieve a high solar fraction both for the heating and cooling seasons. The analysis of the system performance during 2011 is presented in this paper, with main focus on electricity consumption during summer. The analysis has been carried out according to the monitoring procedure developed within the frame of the IEA SHC Task 38. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the frame of the INGV activities of the Group 5 of the European Platform on Zero Emissions Fossil Fuels Power Plants (Eu ZEP) INGV resumes 8 years of experience in public communication on CCS aimed to the public acceptance of this strategic group of technologies. This paper follows from the beginning (2000–2008) the history of the communication and public acceptance campaign in Italy, discriminating in details the bad/sound messages appeared on newspaper, TV, video and conference, mostly as regard the possible natural risks associated to a newly exploited technology: CO2 Capture & Storage (CCS), namely degassing/leakage to surface and triggering of micro-seismicity typically associated to industrial fluids injection. The most important messages, the mediatic errors and the obstacles encountered during this long communication campaign, mostly exploited by INGV in Italy, are described critically, tentatively avoiding that the involved stakeholders make the same mistakes in future and do not adopt the herewith suggested protocols of communication. This is strategic mostly in densely populated countries, like the European ones, often affected by the NIMBY syndrome (Not In My Back Yard) for new plants which could foreseen the CO2 storage sites in the vicinity. In the frame of the European Directivity on CCS, the above mentioned risks are mainly supported and charged on the “storage operator”: and this load is not soundly taken in considerations in the directivity itself: these risks must be spread on the “capture” community and on the “Competent Authority”, otherwise the “storage operators” are not encouraged to enter in the CCS market. INGV describes its experience in creating good communication in public populated events like the “Science Festival” held in Lecce (May 2008) and the “Science Festival” held on Genova (October 2008), also by facilities as plastic interactive CCS scaled box reproducing the CO2 storage techniques, for a complete and simple communication with general public and stakeholders. The most important messages to be highlighted on CCS are mentioned and critically reviewed in the newspaper articles since the USA-Italia bilateral agreements on the climate change, including CCS at that time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Italy is one of the most promising prone areas to study the CO2 behavior underground, the caprock integrity to the CO2 leakage, mostly in presence of pervious/geochemically active faults, due to a wide availability of CO2 rich reservoirs at a depth between 1 and 10 km, as highlighted by recent literature. These deep CO2 reservoirs generate at least 200 leakage areas at surface throughout Italy which have been defined “Diffuse Degassing Structures” (DDS) by INGV. These are widely studied by INGV institutionally by a long term convention with the Civil Protection Department (DPC) with the aim to catalog, monitor and assess the Natural Gas Hazard (NGH, namely the probability of an area to become a site of poisonous peri-volcanic gas exhalation from soils). More than 150 researcher of INGV are involved in monitoring areas affected by the CO2 presence underground and at surface, by continuous monitoring on-line networks (around 40 stations throughout Italy, including the Etna area, Aeolian Islands, Umbria region, Piemonte region, etc.) and discretely (9 groups of research were involved in the last years to localize, define and monitor almost all the DDSs in Italy), by sampling and analyzing chemical and isotopic compounds, useful to discriminate the origin, evolution and natural gas hazards of the examined DDS. In this paper, we will discuss some DDS catalogued and studied by a Rome INGV Research Unit (UR 11) which focused its work in Central Italy, throughout different DDS, also in relation to the diverse seismotectonic settings, to discover buried faults as possible gas leakage pathways, mostly if they are “geochemically” activated. In particular we discuss, among the discrete monitoring techniques exploited by INGV, soil gas surveying, which consists in a collection of gas samples from the soil zone not saturated (dry zone) to measure the geogas gaseous species both in fluxes (CO2, CH4, 222Rn) and in concentration (He, H2, H2S, helium, hydrogen, CO2, CH4, 222Rn), that permeate the soil pores. The total CO2 flux budget was calculated as “baseline” degassing rate of these “ CO2 analogues”. A good discrete areal monitoring is prerequisite to design sound continuous monitoring network to monitor CO2 related parameters in liquid/gas phases, to review the protocol of the Annex II of the European Directivity on CCS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Latera is a volcanic area north of Rome where deep, naturally-produced carbon dioxide migrates to the surface and is released to the atmosphere. The region provides an environment in which many processes relevant to the geological storage of carbon dioxide can be studied. This paper describes system-level modelling studies using Quintessa’s QPAC–CO2 code, which includes a novel soil–plant model that represents both fertilization and toxicity effects from elevated carbon dioxide concentrations. Good comparisons have been obtained between model calculations of surface venting patterns, soil gas concentrations and plant responses, giving confidence that the key features of the system are well understood. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]