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One of the main identified causes of energy poverty (EP) is the low energy efficiency of housing. In this line, since 2018, public administrations and NGOs collaborating with the Naturgy Foundation's Energy Renovation Solidarity Fund have implemented several shallow renovation interventions in 3660 Spanish vulnerable households. However, the effects of these measures on domestic energy affordability were not evaluated before because of a lack of a proper method. This paper presents a methodology to objectively assess the impact of these interventions on EP. In particular, this work proposes calculating a hidden EP indicator using data from a primary survey and applies it to a local case study (54 vulnerable households in Catalonia—10% of dwellings renovated by the Fund in the region) by processing their characteristics and energy bills before and after the implementation of the interventions. Considering the whole sample of households analysed, the hidden EP indicator drops by 10% in absolute terms (11.2% in relative terms) after the retrofit, and the average EP gap goes from 423 €/year to 313 €/year, thus marking a significant positive effect of the analysed interventions on the EP situation of this population. Eventually, extrapolating the results to the vulnerable population in Spain, this paper points out a series of recommendations that could be useful for decision-makers and organisations when designing and implementing shallow renovation interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy management systems allow the Smart Grids industry to track, improve, and regulate energy use. Particularly, demand-side management is regarded as a crucial component of the entire Smart Grids system. Therefore, by aligning utility offers with customer demand, anticipating future energy demands is essential for regulating consumption. An updated examination of several forecasting techniques for projecting energy short-term load forecasts is provided in this article. Each class of algorithms, including statistical techniques, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and hybrid combinations, are comparatively evaluated and critically analyzed, based on three real consumption datasets from Spain, Germany, and the United States of America. To increase the size of tiny training datasets, this paper also proposes a data augmentation technique based on Generative Adversarial Networks. The results show that the Deep Learning-hybrid model is more accurate than traditional statistical methods and basic Machine Learning procedures. In the same direction, it is demonstrated that more comprehensive datasets assisted by complementary data, such as energy generation and weather, may significantly boost the accuracy of the models. Additionally, it is also demonstrated that Generative Adversarial Networks-based data augmentation may greatly improve algorithm accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Spain, irrigated agriculture is the most water-intensive sector, consuming around of 80% of water resources. Moreover, irrigation water distribution systems are the infrastructure by which one-third of water resource losses take place. Monitoring and controlling operations in irrigation canals are essential for mitigating leakages and water waste in operational actions. On the other hand, energy consumption by agriculture is around 5% of usage in developed countries and even higher in undeveloped countries. Although it is a small part of the total energy supply for a country, energy waste reduces the competitiveness of the agriculture sector, which continually reduces profit margins in an economic sector with very low profit margins already. The tool developed in this paper aims to increase the efficiency of water and energy management in the agricultural sector and is included in an overall control diagram for scheduled irrigation management. This tool, the optimal pumping flow (OPF algorithm), optimizes the pumping flow from the irrigation canal to the irrigation reservoir in terms of water level at the canal and reservoir, crop flow demand, system constraints, and energy prices. Regarding the results, the OPF algorithm can calculate the optimum pumping operations, being able to optimize water resource usage and energy expenses by ensuring that the water level at reservoirs remains within a specified range and that pump flow never exceeds a threshold. Further, it allows for the management of pump operations outside of peak hours. On the other hand, the OPF algorithm is also integrated into the overall control diagram in a second test. Here, the OPF algorithm collaborates with a control canal algorithm such as the GoRoSo algorithm to optimize canal gates and pump operations, respectively. In this scenario, OPF reduces cumulative energy expenses by 58% compared to the scenario where the pump station operates only when the reservoir water level is below a certain threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) has been identified by the EU as a powerful resource capable of making substantial contributions to energy savings and reducing GHG emissions. Spain's effort to promote CHP has been prolific since the 1980s. In this regard, there have been various Laws, Royal Decrees (RDs) and European Union (EU) Directives addressed to reach the national objectives set for the CHP sector. Despite these attempts, the evolution and growth of installed CHP capacity has been irregular, compared to other technologies. Likewise, the academic treatment of the Spanish CHP evolution has not deserved the same attention as other technologies such as wind, photovoltaic and thermal solar systems. As a result, this article is aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of the regulatory frameworks applied to the Spanish CHP sector and analysing the reasons behind the variable evolution of the installed CHP capacity. The study covers the legislative context from 1980 to 2020, describing the evolution during both the pre-liberalization and liberalization periods, highlighting the modifications in economic policies that affected self-producers and the so-called Special Regime (SR) for CHP, and examining the challenges faced during the cost containment measures that followed. The manuscript finds and explains the connection between the regulatory framework and the evolution of installed CHP capacity in Spain. Likewise, the connection between the industrial situation and the promotion of CHP, as well as the influence of the Spanish Electricity Sector (SES)'s liberalization on the CHP sector are also pointed out. The paper intends to provide valuable insights for CHP experts and policymakers by showcasing the importance of aligning regulatory measures with the objectives of energy efficiency. It also serves as a reference for countries in various stages of promoting CHP, and provides evidence for the importance of stable energy-policy control mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dry Mediterranean climate (BShs) is the European region with the highest number of hours of sunshine per year. The high annual solar radiation makes sun shading devices necessary to comply with current energy efficiency standards. However, these standards do not sufficiently consider their effect on the indoor lighting comfort of buildings. The objective is to qualitatively and quantitatively determine how movable sun shading devices jointly influence the energy efficiency, thermal comfort and lighting comfort of buildings in BShs climate. The scientific novelty of the work consists of demonstrating the limitations of the sun shading systems commonly used in southeastern Spain and determining the optimal technical solution in this climate to simultaneously improve thermal and lighting comfort. This research comparatively studies the influence of various movable sun shading systems on the daylighting and thermal performance of an educational building. This study conducted on-site measurements, user surveys and computer simulations to study how to improve the thermal and lighting performances of the building. This work demonstrates that interior solar shading provides little improvement in thermal comfort and reduces the cooling demand by only 25%. External movable sun shading improves thermal comfort and reduces the cooling demand by more than 60%, but only adjustable blinds or awnings achieve adequate and homogeneous illuminance values as they diffuse daylight. The paper concludes that energy efficiency standards should be modified to ensure adequate lighting comfort in buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the hhsmmR package, which involves functions for initializing, fitting, and predication of hidden hybrid Markov/semi-Markov models. These models are flexible models with both Markovian and semi-Markovian states, which are applied to situations where the model involves absorbing or macro-states. The left-to-right models and the models with series/parallel networks of states are two models with Markovian and semi-Markovian states. The hhsmm also includes Markov/semi-Markov switching regression model as well as the auto-regressive HHSMM, the nonparametric estimation of the emission distribution using penalized B-splines, prediction of future states and the residual useful lifetime estimation in the predict function. The commercial modular aero-propulsion system simulation (C-MAPSS) data-set is also included in the package, which is used for illustration of the application of the package features. The application of the hhsmm package to the analysis and prediction of the Spain's energy demand is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses, as a case study, various balcony glazing arrangements in a typical tourist apartment building on the Mediterranean coast of south-eastern Spain, and their effects on the energy performance. The glazing of terraces has been very common in this type of flat over the last 40 years. The objective is to determine qualitatively and quantitatively how the glazing of terraces in such buildings influences their energy efficiency and indoor thermal comfort, considering the specific characteristics of the dry Mediterranean climate (BShs) within a warm semi-arid climate (BSh). The scientific novelty of the work consists of demonstrating that the installation of glazed enclosures on terraces allows the houses to be heated for free in winter, taking advantage of the greenhouse effect, and allows excess heat to be dissipated in summer by using natural ventilation. The results of the work enable the determination of appropriate terrace glazing solutions to improve the energy efficiency and thermal comfort of the dwelling, obtaining a reduction of more than 58% in annual energy demand and annual energy consumption. The work demonstrates the advantages that glazing systems for terraces can have in improving the energy efficiency of houses by using systems like glass curtains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric microgrids based mainly on renewable energies have seen a big expansion in recent years due to the great advantages they present against fossil fuels. Nowadays different governments are becoming aware of the use of environmentally friendly energies, so progressive investment has been granted to the consumers in Spain. Many microgrids have been installed in both connected and isolated circumstances, and this fact brings new challenges regarding the technical and economic points of view. This study aims to delve into electrical microgrids based on renewable energies applied in industrial facilities through a review of the literature associated with the study of general microgrids. It later focuses on the relationships between renewable energies and industrial environments. A brief reference is made to the use of energy storage systems in industrial installations depicting the most used systems. This paper presents a review of the state of the art of microgrids from distributed energy resources technologies to industrial microgrids optimization, with the primary objective of providing insight on current trends and directions in research and further identifying areas in need of further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The San Pedro del Pinatar I and II desalination plants in Spain were constructed near Posidonia oceanica meadows protected at the national and European level. The environmental impact statement for these plants stipulate that the brine discharge from the plant must not impact the meadows. To this end, a 4790 m submerged outfall was constructed to bypass the lower limit of the seagrass meadows, and a diffuser piece, along with an outfall pumping system, was installed at the end of the outfall. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the economic cost of the energy consumed for the brine discharge evacuation process necessary to comply with environmental requirements. The operating time and power consumption data were obtained from the plant's monitoring system, while the energy cost was obtained from energy invoices. The computed results show that it is possible to minimize the environmental impacts of brine discharge on the marine environment of an SWRO plant with a low economic cost. The average energy consumption of the reject effluent pumping system ranged from 19.4 to 1239.3 thousand kWh per year, while the average annual energy cost was 49,329 €, which amounts to only 0.56% of the total energy cost for plant operation. The adoption of these measures provide a cost-effective means to meet environmental protection requirements and minimize the environmental impact associated with the discharged brine. As the demand for desalination operations increase, economically and scientifically viable technologies for mitigating environmental impacts are necessary for sustainability in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Heat Loss Coefficient (HLC) characterizes the envelope efficiency of a building under in-use conditions, and it represents one of the main causes of the performance gap between the building design and its real operation. Accurate estimations of the HLC contribute to optimizing the energy consumption of a building. In this context, the application of black-box models in building energy analysis has been consolidated in recent years. The aim of this paper is to estimate the HLC of an existing building through the prediction of building thermal demands using a methodology based on Machine Learning (ML) models. Specifically, three different ML methods are applied to a public library in the northwest of Spain and compared; eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network. Furthermore, the accuracy of the results is measured, on the one hand, using both CV(RMSE) and Normalized Mean Biased Error (NMBE), as advised by AHSRAE, for thermal demand predictions and, on the other, an absolute error for HLC estimations. The main novelty of this paper lies in the estimation of the HLC of a building considering thermal demand predictions reducing the requirement for monitoring. The results show that the most accurate model is capable of estimating the HLC of the building with an absolute error between 4 and 6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing spread of electric sustainable mobility is transforming the local ways of transport in metropolitan areas. This is meant to be extended outside of big cities in the near future thanks to new technological developments. Little towns should adapt to these changes, as they are located geographically far from the big cities and are generally characterized by low economic and demographic indicators. Hence, little towns must keep pace with these changes in mobility to avoid being isolated from the main cities in a country. People living in the countryside usually move toward big cities for various reasons, either related to work or living necessities. Therefore, it must be possible to conduct usual displacements through the use of electric vehicles (EVs), i.e., reaching the destinations and supplying the batteries through charging infrastructures. This paper studies the full implementation of electric mobility applied in the case of Cuenca, a city located in middle Spain. A brief geographical context is provided, together with the routes and destinations of interest considered. Then, different EVs are considered and an analytical vehicle model is provided. The model was exploited to simulate the electrical energy demand to reach the destinations chosen; the results allow comparing the performances offered by different types of EVs. This aspect is then considered as the basis to propose further upgrades in the charging infrastructures where needed, to comply with the widespread use of electric mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-technical losses (NTL) in electricity utilities are responsible for major revenue losses. In this paper, we propose a novel end-to-end solution to self-learn the features for detecting anomalies and frauds in smart meters using a hybrid deep neural network. The network is fed with simple raw data, removing the need of handcrafted feature engineering. The proposed architecture consists of a long short-term memory network and a multi-layer perceptrons network. The first network analyses the raw daily energy consumption history whilst the second one integrates non-sequential data such as its contracted power or geographical information. The results show that the hybrid neural network significantly outperforms state-of-the-art classifiers as well as previous deep learning models used in NTL detection. The model has been trained and tested with real smart meter data of Endesa, the largest electricity utility in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the temporal dependence in energy prices and demand using daily data of Portugal and Spain over the period 2007–2017. The methodology used is based on a stochastic Hidden Markov Model and the results indicate first that all significant relationships between energy prices and demands were found to be positive; second, spot prices are only time dependent on future prices and spot energy, while future energy is solely time dependent on spot energy behavior; third, future prices are not only autocorrelated but also time-dependent with spot energy and future energy demands level; and finally, spot energy is autocorrelated and time-dependent with future prices and future energy. Policy implications of the results obtained are presented at the end of the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-forest drying of roundwood and biomass (residues) can result in more efficient transport operations from an economical and environmental perspective. On the negative side, in-forest drying may result in dry matter losses (DML), impacting the quantity and quality of residues delivered to energy plants. This paper investigated the impact of roundwood and residues in-forest drying and DML on supply chain costs and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. For the assessment, a short-term optimization planning tool was applied to a supply chain located in Asturias, Spain, consisting of fourteen supply points and two demand points: A pulp mill (demanding roundwood) and a power plant (demanding residues). Four scenarios were included in the analysis comprising different combinations of DML for roundwood and residues resulting from in-forest drying. Our results indicate that in scenarios that include in-forest drying and DML, the negative economic effects are offset by the substantial reductions in transport costs and GHG emissions. In-forest drying of roundwood and residues without DML can result in a 6.5% reduction in supply chain costs, 14.9% fewer truckloads to destination points, and 18.1% less fuel consumption and GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rise in the number of EVs (electric vehicles) in Europe is putting pressure on power grids. At an urban scale, Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are devised as archetypes of (small) urban districts managing a set of interconnected buildings and district elements (lighting system, vehicles, smart grid, etc.). This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the impact of e-mobility in a PED, simulated using MATLAB-Simulink software. The PED, a small district in northern Spain, is assessed in five scenarios representing varying requirements in terms of energy efficiency of buildings, type of street lighting and number of EVs. The results suggest that the energy rating of the buildings (ranging from A for the most efficient to E) conditions the annual energy balance. A PED with six interconnected buildings (3 residential and 3 of public use) and 405 EVs (as a baseline) only achieves positivity when the buildings have a high energy rating (certificate A or B). In the most efficient case (A-rated buildings), simulation results show that the PED can support 695 EVs; in other words, it can provide nearly 9 million green kilometres. This result represents a potential 71% saving in carbon emissions from e-mobility alone (as compared to the use of fossil-fuel vehicles), thus contributing a reduction in the carbon footprint of the district and the city as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil aquifer treatment (SAT) is a managed aquifer recharge technology that involves the utilization of treated wastewater as a source. Widely implemented in countries like Australia, Israel, and Spain, SAT offers technical (flexibility), economic (lower investment cost), and environmental (lower energy consumption) advantages that invite people in other countries to assess its potential. There have been numerous research studies and experiments conducted on the process level of SAT, focusing on how to eliminate pollutants and improve water quality. However, research at the system level is limited, which hampers its widespread application, especially in developing countries. In this paper, I provide a comprehensive guideline that highlights important factors to consider when implementing SAT as a technology. Proper site selection and careful planning steps, including pretreatment, hydrogeological factors, and economic calculations, can significantly improve the performance of an SAT system. The regulatory component acts as a barrier to the expansion of SAT facilities worldwide due to the lack of harmonization in regulations. This study includes the details and results of an examination of the legal framework and establishes comparative guidelines and water quality parameters that must be met by SAT projects utilizing reclaimed water. The maintenance and monitoring of the SAT system are also essential to anticipating and addressing potential issues such as clogging. Lastly, the social aspect, which is of utmost importance, should be carefully considered. It is advisable to ensure transparent communication with end users from the early stages of the project. These key elements are interconnected, and none should be considered less significant than the others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Tailoring of energy performance diffusion regarding public and private policies in countries where energy efficiency is not clearly seen as a source of benefits in the residential context. Within the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive information symmetry regarding financial and environmental benefits, coming from real estate performance, is a key element in the promotion of efficient buildings. However, the link between energy efficiency and its perceived co-benefits is far from perfect in EU countries with a short trajectory in the promotion of such residential attributes, endangering the efficacy of information-symmetry policies. Using a large survey applied to sellers, buyers, lessors and tenants this paper explores, in Spain, the perceived co-benefits in terms of energy savings and thermal comfort of efficient homes and whether such perception correlates to current living conditions, housing tenure and sociodemographic profile of respondents. Results suggest that in general such co-benefits are present in the mind of the main agents of the housing market. However, their perception is far from being homogeneous, it is clearer in the case of households whose current home is poorly insulated or inadequately serviced in terms of thermal active systems. Sociodemographic conditions also play a role in co-benefits perceptions: Elder, wealthier and landlords, irrespective of whether they act as sellers, buyers or lessors, do perceive to a larger extent the co-benefits of efficient homes. Such findings signal clear paths for the improvement of energy and housing policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies are gradually becoming conscious about the necessity of reducing their environmental impact and adopting low-carbon strategies in order to cope with increasing institutional and social demands. However, remaining competitive while reducing the environmental impact and improving the corporate image requires adopting sophisticated mechanisms boosting eco-efficiency and keeping costs tight. Material Flows Cost Accounting (MFCA) is an instrument that allows the monitoring of, measurement of, and accounting for physical and monetary processes along the production process. If extended to the supply chain, and applied to the energy usage and CO2 emissions, it allows one to account for the Carbon Footprint (CF) of a company and its products at any given stage of the value chain. The current paper presents a case study developed under the framework of a three-year project to introduce an energy use and carbon emissions monitoring and accounting system in a large winery company in Spain, based on the MFCA approach and CF accountability. Including the supply chain of the company and the whole farming cycle of its main input, the case study presents the method and phases adopted to implement the project, its direct and indirect results and outcomes, and the conclusions that can be extracted, which may be inspirational for practitioners and scholars envisaging similar projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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• The paper has a focus on energy consumption habits and trends using statistical methods. • Occupants' behavior is monitored using smart metering system and awareness surveys. • The impact of a serious game on occupant's behavior is evaluated. The paper has a focus on energy consumption habits, trends and intervention strategies in residential buildings, mainly through the serious game approach with a combination of direct consumer feedback through smart metering. More than 150 homes in France and Spain have been involved in the research experiment and the consumption habits of approximately 50 homes were deeply analyzed. The applied methods, processes, results and findings of the monitoring data analysis are presented in the paper with two aims. First, consumption profiles and trends were determined for apartment homes with regard to heating, domestic hot water and electric consumption. Second, the impact of a serious game experiment was assessed comparing energy consumption, indoor air temperature and users' habits (based on questionnaires) before and after launching the experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to specify people's awareness, acceptance and needs for the Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy efficiency (EE) innovations in Jordan. This took place after having studied the most influential innovations on RE and EE in Germany, Spain and Turkey. Then, two suitable innovations were selected; in particular, PV mobile charger and sodium light unit regulator. Our research was based on the analysis of qualitative interviews and a questionnaire. The results showed that (53%) are willing to buy PV mobile charger depending on its life cycle and efficiency even if it is expensive. About (89%) of respondents realized that it is important to develop and support the EE innovative solution of using sodium regulator in lighting the streets by the municipalities, and about (49%) would like to take practical steps for the RE and EE developments if they could. The results also show that all respondents are willing to pay extra cost to obtain green energy; (20%) want the cheapest possible solution in this regard. the study results indicate that Jordanian people do expect more from the public sector about renewable energy production; whereas a large percentage (63%) thinks that public sector should take the first step towards renewable energy production. The acceptance and awareness of the society on RE and EE innovations is one of the most important drivers towards the transition to RE and EE in Jordan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-sectional energy benchmarking in the building domain has become crucial for policymakers, energy managers and property owners as they can compare an immovable property performance against its closest peers. For this, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are formulated, often relying on multiple and heterogeneous data sources which, combined, can be used to set benchmarks following normalization criteria. Geographically delimited parameters are important among these criteria because they enclose entities sharing key common characteristics the geometrical boundaries represent. Linking georeferenced heterogeneous data is not trivial, for it requires geographical aggregation, which is often taken for granted or hidden within a pre-processing activity in most energy benchmarking studies. In this article, a novel approach for Linked Data (LD) generation is presented as a methodological solution for data integration together with its application in the energy benchmarking use case. The methodology consists of eight phases that follow the best principles and recommend standards including the well-known GeoSPARQL Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for leveraging the geographical aggregation. Its feasibility is demonstrated by the integrated exploitation of INSPIRE-formatted cadastral data and the Buildings Performance Certifications (BPCs) available for the Catalonia region in Spain. The outcomes of this research support the adoption of the proposed methodology and provide the means for generating cross-sectional building energy benchmarking histograms from any-scale geographical aggregations on the fly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal simulations have become increasingly popular in assessing energy efficiency and predicting thermal behaviors in various structures. Calibration of these simulations is essential for accurate predictions. A crucial aspect of this calibration involves investigating the influence of meteorological variables. This study aims to explore the impact of meteorological variables on thermal simulations, particularly focusing on ships. Using TRNSYS (TRaNsient System Simulation) software (v17), renowned for its capability to model complex energy systems within buildings, the significance of incorporating meteorological data into thermal simulations was analyzed. The investigation centered on a patrol vessel stationed in a port in Galicia, northwest Spain. To ensure accuracy, we not only utilized the vessel's dimensions but also conducted in situ temperature measurements onboard. Furthermore, a dedicated weather station was installed to capture real-time meteorological data. Data from multiple sources, including Meteonorm and MeteoGalicia, were collected for comparative analysis. By juxtaposing simulations based on meteorological variables against those relying solely on in situ measurements, we sought to discern the relative merits of each approach in enhancing the fidelity of thermal simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a detailed analysis of thermal comfort and energy consumption in a Passivhaus-certified apartment in Bolueta Tower, Bilbao, Spain, over a period of three years (2020–2022). Utilizing a comprehensive, long-term monitoring approach, the research investigates the effectiveness of the Passivhaus standard in achieving both energy efficiency and occupant comfort in a temperate climate. Using calibrated data loggers to record indoor temperature, humidity, and CO2 levels were used alongside the collection of utility bills to assess energy consumption and thermal comfort, as well as IAQ, against several international standards. Significant issues with overheating were confirmed, in line with previous research. During the warmer months, indoor temperatures frequently exceeded the Passivhaus comfort threshold of 25 °C, reaching as high as 31.3 °C, particularly in the living room and bedroom. This resulted in discomfort during summer, with the percentage of hours above 25 °C reaching 23.21% in 2022. Nighttime temperatures often surpassed 24 °C, impacting sleep quality. Conversely, heating consumption was minimal, corroborating the building's energy efficiency in colder months. The findings highlight a critical gap in the Passivhaus standard when applied in milder climates, where overheating becomes a significant issue. This study suggests the need for an integrated approach in sustainable building design, one that balances energy efficiency with adaptive strategies to mitigate overheating, such as improved natural ventilation and thermal mass. These insights contribute to the ongoing discourse on optimizing energy-efficient buildings for occupant comfort in various climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interurban road transport is one of the largest sources of emissions within all the economical sectors of Spain and accounts for 30% of the total energy consumption and subsequent CO2emissions. Fuel consumption, mostly gasoline and diesel, has decreased by −0.7% between 2004 and 2009 despite the increase of vehicle fleet (14.7%) and related travelled performances (3.1%). The paper estimates the energy consumption and subsequent emissions of CO2and pollutants, CO, NOx, PM and NMVOC, of the interurban road transport in Spain for the period 2004–2009 by the use of a conceptual procedure. This procedure makes an effort to allocate the fuel sales, liters of diesel and gasoline, across different categories of vehicles (ages and technologies) operating on the interurban Spanish roads. In order to elaborate the inventory of energy consumption and emissions, the procedure uses the emission factors from the Copert process-based model, optimized for the Spanish interurban driving conditions. According to the inventory, total CO2emissions have decreased from 68.0 Mt of CO2in 2004 to 66.9 Mt (−1.6%). This trend is due to diesel road vehicles. The CO2emissions of gasoline vehicles and the total emission of related pollutants followed a downward trend due to technological improvements of vehicles and decrease of gasoline consumption. The CO2emissions of diesel vehicles and the total emission of related pollutants followed an upward trend due to the increase of diesel consumption despite technological improvements of vehicles. Better estimates of energy consumption and emissions are possible in the future by using specific emission factors for different vehicle categories based on telemetric systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study provides an in-depth assessment of the environmental performance of five public schools in the transition towards a low-carbon economy and a more sustainable model of society. Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is used to conduct the study. The school system includes several activities and processes clustered in three subsystems: management of the school building, training and learning activities (T&L) and mobility and transport (M&T). A detailed primary data inventory of energy and resources consumption was collected in five schools located in Spain and Portugal. Findings on climate change (CC), water depletion (WD), particular matter (PM), acidification (Ac), and human health (HH), as well as associated external cost (EC), are reported per student in one school year as reference unit, allowing the schools' individual performance comparison and identify the potential improvements. Considering the sample of schools, findings reveal that peculiarities of the schools, such as location, specialization, and level of education, are crucial for the environmental performance. Buildings are a relevant contributor to CC as well as heating and electricity needs, although their relevance is dependent on multiple factors. The M&T subsystem also has relevant weight on the metrics evaluated. Educational activities have a lower impact in absolute terms but, in some schools, it becomes the main contributor to HH due to paper and electricity consumption and manufacturing of equipment. External costs results are in the range of 11 to 38 EUR/student·year mainly caused by heating, electricity and wastes from the building subsystem, and the M&T subsystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operation of solar photovoltaic installations for many years may lead to problems such as reduced energy efficiency and aging of components. Under this framework, replacing certain components in the facility to extend the service life of the power plant is viewed, in some cases, as a feasible strategy. However, despite its enormous strategic interest for the solar PV industry, we find that revamping PV installations has been the focus of very few scientific publications, and even less so when it comes to analyzing real facilities. Thus, this paper performs a techno-economic analysis of three revamping strategies at a real PV power plant located in the south-east of Spain. The strategies consist of substituting, in each case, the PV modules, the inverter, and both components. The simulated results show that the highest production value by installed power is obtained when both the modules and the inverter are replaced. In the same vein, the economic analysis reveals this scenario as the most favorable in terms of profitability. Based on the results obtained, an interesting future line of research would be focused on the extension of the analysis at country level to study the joint impact of numerous revamping actions. • Techno-economic analysis of revamping projects of a real solar PV power plant. • Replacing modules and inverter emerges as the most feasible strategy. • Study's applicability extends to other revamping initiatives and geographical regions. • Economic outcomes allow the most cost-effective alternatives to be determined. • This research can contribute to efficient and sustainable energy planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy crisis and the exacerbation of climate change, along with the associated geopolitical tensions, including the war in Ukraine, are accelerating the energy transition in Europe. A transition from fossil energy sources to renewable energy sources that have a low Energy Return Rate, involves, among many other issues, the use of wide areas to locate the necessary infrastructure for production, transport and storage, altering territories with agricultural, cultural and ecological values. This process is based on the deployment of renewable energy megaprojects in peripheric areas of the continent, mostly in the southern states creating a wide range of social conflicts and resistances. We analyse this process in the case study of the province of Granada, a peripheric territory of south-east Spain considering the category of energy colonialism and the six dimensions that characterise it, arguing that this is a proper approach to address internal colonialism related to the corporate energy transition. We also want to demonstrate the importance of using participatory methodologies for this analysis, so we have developed an online survey, semi-structured interviews and participatory cartography workshops, always focusing on the citizens and stakeholders who are resisting the deployment of renewable energy megaprojects in the province of Granada. The obtained results allow us to confirm the necessity of using participatory methodologies and the colonial aspect of this deployment, including the characteristics of social resistance, the territorial impacts, the land-grabbing process and the inequalities in the production, distribution and use of energy. We conclude with the need to articulate a decolonial energy transition where participatory methods constitute a fundamental tool both to attend the resistances and to build the alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing environmental impacts in transport motivates many studies to offer more sustainable freight services. However, most methodologies focus on impacts from fuel consumption, and approaches trying to integrate other transport components have not facilitated its application to actual and specific transport services. In this study, we present a harmonized approach to address the transport services with a holistic way to increase the knowledge about hotspots of the transport sector based on the life cycle assessment methodology. In this framework, vehicle manufacturing, fuel production, and infrastructure construction are the key transport components around the traffic process. Besides fuel usage, the operation and maintenance of vehicles and infrastructures are also included. We developed a tool to create the life cycle inventories for each transport component to be applied to specific transport services in any location with a comprehensive view and low uncertainty in the results. This approach was applied to road-freight services in Colombia, Malaysia, and Spain. The main results showed the nature and origin of the environmental impacts, which are highly influenced by the emissions control technologies, road characteristics, and traffic volume. The contribution of atmospheric pollutants per tonne-km can decrease by a quarter when Euro VI trucks on highways instead of conventional trucks on single-lane roads are used. However, these contributions are highly affected by fuel production due to the origin of biofuels. The proposed methodology provides relevant information to estimate transport impacts in the life cycle assessment of products with superior precision and identify strategies for systemically improving sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electric energy production would be much more efficient if accurate estimations of the future demand were available, since these would allow allocating only the resources needed for the production of the right amount of energy required. With this motivation in mind, we propose a strategy, based on neuroevolution, that can be used to this aim. Our proposal uses a genetic algorithm in order to find a sub-optimal set of hyper-parameters for configuring a deep neural network, which can then be used for obtaining the forecasting. Such a strategy is justified by the observation that the performances achieved by deep neural networks are strongly dependent on the right setting of the hyper-parameters, and genetic algorithms have shown excellent search capabilities in huge search spaces. Moreover, we base our proposal on a distributed computing platform, which allows its use on a large time-series. In order to assess the performances of our approach, we have applied it to a large dataset, related to the electric energy consumption registered in Spain over almost 10 years. Experimental results confirm the validity of our proposal since it outperforms all other forecasting techniques to which it has been compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Basque Y High Speed Rail connection between Madrid and the Basque Autonomous Community is, quite exceptionally, a mixed freight and passengers HSR line, that has been presented as a fundamental step towards a more sustainable mobility. In this paper, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted to assess the environmental performance of the line throughout its lifetime, based on the latest data available, including both construction and maintenance burdens. Results show that this new corridor is not justified in terms of reducing emissions and energy consumption, mainly due to its low transport density. It also has a negligible impact on Spanish current low rail freight traffic. We conclude, therefore, that Spain needs to reconsider its AVE network expansion if aiming at increasing rail's modal share and meeting the emissions targets set by the EU. From a policy perspective, many information inconsistencies have been found regarding the demand projections of freight transport, which cast serious doubt about the decision-making process behind Trans-European transport projects. [Display omitted] • Life-cycle assessment (LCA) of the Basque Y high-speed rail line under construction in 2023. • It verifies whether this project is justified in terms of environmental impacts reductions. • Net balance of the Basque Y high-speed rail is very modest, when not detrimental. • This project would not be justified in terms of environmental impacts reductions. • Alternatives to high-speed rail in the transport hierarchy provide better environmental balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Energy Communities analysis and review in Europe and, more specifically, in Spain. • Promoting energy poverty reduction and cooperation through Energy Communities. • Real case study focused on reducing energy poverty in the city of Getafe (Spain). • Selection of public buildings to implement energy community in two neighborhoods. • Significant electricity bill reductions for energy poverty households. Advancements in renewable energy technologies, a growing awareness of the need for sustainable energy solutions, and the emergence of new business models in the energy sector, have contributed to the growth of Energy Communities. Public entities can find in energy communities today an opportunity to tackle energy poverty, to increase the cooperation among citizens and to empower them to be a more active player within the energy sector. This paper analyzes energy communities in Europe and focuses specifically on Spain; considering the three beneficial aspects previously mentioned. It aims to obtain ground truth about the applications of these new citizens' arrangements. A citizen-led initiative at the city of Getafe (Madrid, Spain) is included and discussed in detail. This case study focused on reducing energy poverty of its participants. An energy community was designed and implemented as a collective PV solar self-consumption infrastructure. The roofs of various public buildings in the two case study neighborhoods were selected for locating the PV installations. Real metered data were used to evaluate the solution. A public building was selected for the energy community, considering generation on roof and dwellings proximity. The results provided that out of the 77% PV generations could be used to contribute to the demand of 100 residences; while the resulting 23% would provide approximately 60% of the energy demand of the public building. The setting up of the Energy Community not only had the technical part but also included workshops seminars and information sessions, to ensure that people prone to benefit and maximize its impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of a CSP tower system with a PV solar field, sharing a thermal energy storage, is modeled and discussed. The tower system uses a new-design solid particle fluidized bed receiver integrated with a thermal storage, where hot particles are directly collected to store daily energy for overnight production of electricity. The PV solar field is aimed to supply the daily energy demand; when there is a surplus of PV energy production, the electric energy is converted to heat and accumulated in the thermal storage too. The integration of the two energy systems is modeled, building efficiency functions for all the sub-components of the integrated plant (heliostat field, receiver, storage, power block, PV field). Yearly simulations are performed for two different locations, Spain and Australia, obtaining that a system with a peak power of 10 MWe CSP + 15 MWe PV can supply—with a limited curtailment—a fraction of more than 60% (respectively, 62% and 68%) of a realistic electric load with a peak demand around 10 MW, to be compared with the 45/47% of the same load obtained adopting a PV-only system with the same overall peak power. In the integrated system, PV directly supplies 40/41% of the load, the remaining 23/28% being produced by the power block (mainly fed by the CSP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the energy benefits of switchable insulation systems (SIS) are assessed when applied as shades for windows as well as dynamic insulation for exterior walls of residential buildings located in European countries including Belgium and Spain. A series of analyses is performed for detached houses and apartments representing common Belgian residential buildings to determine the energy performance of SIS when deployed to windows and exterior walls and operated using simplified rule-based controls. The analysis results indicate that SIS-integrated windows can achieve significant energy savings for both dwelling types in Belgium, including the elimination of any mechanical cooling and a reduction of up to 44% of heating energy end-use. Moreover, the results show that SIS can offer even more energy efficiency and thermal comfort benefits when deployed to both windows and exterior walls for residential buildings. These energy efficiency benefits are higher, especially for reducing heating needs, for the milder climates of Belgium and Spain. However, it should be noted that the energy performance of SIS could be affected substantially by windows' orientation and occupants' behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been growing concern regarding energy efficiency in the building sector with energy requirements increasing worldwide and now responsible for about 40% of final energy consumption in Europe. Previous research has shown that ventilated façades help to reduce energy use when cooling buildings in hot and temperate climates. Of the different ventilated façade configurations reported in the literature, the configuration of ventilated façade with window rarely has been studied, and its 3D thermodynamic behavior is deserving of further analysis and modeling. This paper examines the thermal behavior of an opaque ventilated façade with a window, in experimentally and numerical terms and its impact in energy savings to get indoor comfort. Field measurements were conducted during the winter, spring and summer seasons of 2021 using outdoor full scale test cells located in Seville (southern Spain). The modeling of the ventilated façade was carried out using a three-dimensional approach taking into account the 3D behavior of the air flow in the air cavity due to the presence of the window. The validation and comparison process using experimental data showed that the proposed model provided good results from quantitative and qualitative point of view. The reduction of the heat flux was assessed by comparing the energy performance of a ventilated façade with that of an unventilated façade. Both experimental and numerical results showed that the ventilated façade provided a reduction in annual total energy consumption when compared to the unventilated façade, being compensated the winter energy penalization by the summer energy savings. This reduction is about 21 % for the whole typical climatic year showing the ability of the opaque ventilated façade studied to reduce energy consumption to insure indoor comfort, making its suitable for use in retrofitting the energy-obsolete building stock built in Spain in the middle decades of the 20 century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Understanding of energy consumption patterns is extremely important for optimization of resources and application of green trends. Traditionally, analyses were performed for large environments like regions and nations. However, with the advent of Smart Grids, the study of the behavior of smaller environments has become a necessity to allow a deeper micromanagement of the energy grid. This paper presents a data processing system to analyze energy consumption patterns in industrial parks, based on the cascade application of a Self-Organizing Map (SOM) and the clustering k-means algorithm. The system is validated with real load data from an industrial park in Spain. The validation results show that the system adequately finds different behavior patterns which are meaningful, and is capable of doing so without supervision, and without any prior knowledge about the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the literature on environmental sustainability is rapidly increasing, many studies suggest that this problem needs to be dealt with by considering a broader perspective, i.e., supply chains. In this paper, we put forward the idea that different practices for greening suppliers can be combined to shape different green supply management (GSM) strategies. More specifically, the following research questions are posed. 1) How do firms combine managerial practices to form GSM strategies? 2) What are the variables that affect this decision? 3) What are the results of the different GSM strategies? Drawing on a survey among Spanish firms, we performed a cluster analysis that identified three main GSM strategies. In the second step, we contrasted these clusters using environmental drivers, context, and performance variables. The results show that there are several approaches to “greening” the supply chain, with different results and company profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the influence of thermal parameters—conductivity, transmittance, and thermal mass—in the estimation of comfort and energy demand of a building with rammed earth walls, and consequently, the compliance with standards. It is known that nominal design data does not match in situ measured values, especially in traditionally constructed buildings. We have therefore monitored a room in a building with rammed earth walls, designed a computerised model, and compared four different alternatives where we have changed the value for the thermal conductivity (in situ vs. estimated) and the consideration of thermal mass. When we then analyse the compliance with the Spanish energy saving code, using measured values would result in lower differences with the standards' limits and even comply with the global thermal transmittance (K-value) requirement. This would mean a more realistic approach to the restoration of traditional buildings leading to the use of thinner and more suitable insulation and retrofitting systems, encouraging the use of rammed earth in new buildings, and therefore reducing the carbon footprint due to materials used in construction. Results show that the building model that uses in situ values and considers thermal mass (S1) is closer to reality when assessing thermal comfort. Finally, using nominal data would result in requiring 43% more energy in the selected winter period and 102% more energy in the selected summer period to keep the same comfort conditions as in the alternative where measured values are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low energy efficiency of the European building stock is both a social and environmental issue. However, plans and studies on energy retrofitting interventions do not usually evaluate the impact of these measures on households' energy affordability. This paper analyses and compares the effect of alternative retrofitting strategies on thermal energy services' affordability in Spanish vulnerable households. This analysis was carried out by applying the Required Thermal Energy Expenditure model proposed in previous studies to several 2030 residential building stock scenarios, setting 2020 as a baseline. Therefore, this work proposes a methodological approach to assess the impact of the considered energy efficiency interventions on energy poverty in winter (WEP) and summer (SEP) and carries out both a 'social cost' and a cost-benefit analysis. The dwelling's thermal-enclosure retrofitting stands out as a very WEP-reduction and social-cost effective measure. Instead, replacing old thermal systems with more efficient ones would have a higher impact on SEP. Combining both kinds of retrofitting measures could reduce heating and cooling required expenditures by, respectively, 49% and 59%, and decrease the WEP and SEP share, correspondingly, by 35% and 63%. These results might inform policymakers to enhance the targeting and design of energy efficiency programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will have a great impact on the hottest climates of southern Europe and the existing residential stock will be extremely vulnerable to these future climatic conditions. Therefore, there is an urgent need to update this building stock considering imminent global warming by applying climatic files that predict future conditions in building performance simulations. This research makes use of the two most applied tools (Meteonorm and CCWorldWeatherGen) for generating future climate hourly datasets for 2050 and 2080 in southern Spain. The results predicted for outdoor and indoor thermal conditions and cooling and heating demands are evaluated for two different scale simulation models: a test cell and a multi-family building located in southern Spain. The main aim of this work is the development of a comparative analysis of the results to highlight their potential differences and raise awareness of the influence of the climate data projection method on the simulation outcome. The results show that the projection method selected for producing future climatic files has relevant effects on the analysis of thermal comfort and energy demand, but it is considerably reduced when an annual evaluation is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy-supply crisis, aggravated by the war in Ukraine, has prompted EU governments to approve urgent energy-saving measures. The new Spanish energy-saving standard aims to reduce energy consumption by changing the regulatory limits for indoor hygrothermal conditions in buildings. This regulation has provoked a great social debate about its real effectiveness and its impact on user comfort. This work explores the hygrothermal performance of an office building in southeastern Spain. The objective of this research is to determine qualitatively and quantitatively how the new energy-saving standard in Spain influences energy efficiency and indoor thermal comfort, by considering the characteristics of the dry Mediterranean climate (BShs) within a warm semi-arid climate (BSh). The scientific novelty of the study is to demonstrate that the new Spanish standard not only reduces energy costs but also makes the indoor comfort of buildings much worse; for this reason, an improvement in the standard is also proposed. The study methodology consists of a comparative study between the thermal performance, thermal comfort, and energy demand of the building, considering both the new and previous standards' requirements. It also includes the evaluation of a proposal to improve the current standard. The results showed that the new energy-saving standard reduced energy consumption by 21.78% in comparison to former standards, but the new comfort ranges were not acceptable for 60% of the users. The proposed improvement does achieve acceptable comfort for most users (75%) and an additional reduction in energy demand of 48.76% compared to current standard. We conclude that the thermal comfort requirements of the current energy standard should be modified to better adapt the design criteria to the dry Mediterranean climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet water demands, pressurised irrigation networks often need pumping devices, whose power demand varies with the pump head, the flow rate delivered and the pump efficiency. To satisfy the energy demand of pumps, solar photovoltaic panels can be used as a renewable energy source. Since the electricity supply of a solar photovoltaics plant depends on irradiance, the energy that powers the pump varies with the time of the day. This study presents a strategy for scheduling water delivery by irrigation pumps, synchronising energy production in solar photovoltaic modules and minimising the installation size. An optimisation algorithm is proposed, which changes the energy required by pumping devices and adjusts them to the available solar energy supply, minimising the number of panels required. This problem applies to a pressurised irrigation network, where the utility manager may irrigate crops at all hours of the day. By adopting the proposed algorithm, irrigation will follow a rigid rotation schedule to follow the new irrigation plan. This approach improves earlier studies by employing a least-square scheduling algorithm with little computing time. This results in a tool for managers and decision-makers when evaluating the possibility of converting their irrigation network into a stand-alone system supplied by photovoltaic panels. A case study handling this issue in the University of Alicante's pressurised irrigation network in Spain is proposed to find potential energy savings by connecting the recommended scheduling irrigating plan to the present operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 50% of the world's population lives in cities. Its buildings consume more than a third of the energy and generate 40% of the emissions. This makes cities in general and their buildings in particular priority points of attention for policymakers and utilities. This paper uses population density as a variable to know its influence on energy consumption and emissions produced in buildings. Furthermore, to show its effect more clearly, the influence of the climate was eliminated. The usual energy consumption in buildings is thermal and electrical. The study was carried out at the city level, both per inhabitant and per household. The area actually occupied by the city was considered. The proposed method was applied to the case of Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The results show that the higher the population density, the higher the energy consumption per inhabitant and household in buildings. The consumption of thermal energy is elastic, while that of electrical energy is inelastic, varying more than 100% between extreme groups. Regarding CO2 emissions, the higher the population density, the higher the emissions. Emissions of electrical origin barely vary by 2% and are greater than those of thermal origin. In addition, the proportion of emissions of electrical origin, with respect to the total, decreases with increasing population density from 74% to 55%. This research aims to help policymakers and utilities to take the appropriate measures that favor the use of renewable energies and reduce CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermostatic load control systems are widespread in many countries. Since they provide heat for domestic hot water and space heating on a massive scale in the residential sector, the assessment of their energy performance and the effect of different control strategies requires simplified modeling techniques demanding a small number of inputs and low computational resources. Data-driven techniques are envisaged as one of the best options to meet these constraints. This paper presents a novel methodology consisting of the combination of an optimization algorithm, two auto-regressive models and a control loop algorithm able to virtually replicate the control of thermostatically driven systems. This combined strategy includes all the thermostatically controlled modes governed by the set point temperature and enables automatic assessment of the energy consumption impact of multiple scenarios. The required inputs are limited to available historical readings from smart thermostats and external climate data sources. The methodology has been trained and validated with data sets coming from a selection of 11 smart thermostats, connected to gas boilers, placed in several households located in north-eastern Spain. Important conclusions of the research are that these techniques can estimate the temperature decay of households when the space heating is off as well as the energy consumption needed to reach the comfort conditions. The results of the research also show that estimated median energy savings of 18.1% and 36.5% can be achieved if the usual set point temperature schedule is lowered by 1 °C and 2 °C, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the energy performance of existing buildings is one of the main strategies defined by the European Union to reduce global energy costs. Amongst the actions to be carried out in buildings to achieve this objective is working with passive measures adapted to each type of climate. To assist designers in the process of finding appropriate solutions for each building and location, different tools have been developed and since the implementation of building information modeling (BIM), it has been possible to perform an analysis of a building's life cycle from an energy perspective and other types of analysis such as a comfort analysis. In the case of Spain, the first BIM environment tool has been implemented that deals with the global analysis of a building's behavior and serves as an alternative to previous methods characterized by their lack of both flexibility and information offered to designers. This paper evaluates and compares the official Spanish energy performance evaluation tool (Cypetherm) released in 2018 using a case study involving the installation of sunlight control devices as part of a building refurbishment. It is intended to determine how databases and simplifications affect the designer's decision-making. Additionally, the yielded energy results are complemented by a comfort analysis to explore the impact of these improvements from a users' wellbeing viewpoint. At the end of the process the yielded results still confirm that the simulation remains far from reality and that simulation tools can indeed influence the decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the environmental impact assessment of a specific urban fabric: the housing estate. This urban-growth typology arose in the second half of the twentieth century to supply the existing needs of the time. It involved short-term processes, reduced costs, and lower comfort standards, which are far from present European guidelines. Currently, they represent situations of unsustainability in cities worldwide that are undergoing improvement. Here, the environmental impact assessment and minimization for urban organisms (EIAMUO) methodology is presented. This consists of a system of eco-indicators created specifically for estimating the impacts associated with these fabrics. Through its practical application, a snapshot of the current situation is achieved and the targets designed to minimize the environmental impact are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of the thermal performance of a single-family house located in a coastal city in northern Spain that was built according to Spanish standards during the 1990s. The study estimates an annual energy demand of around 95 kWh/m 2 and a thermal power rating of the heating system of around 16 kW. The potential energy savings that would be obtained by implementing different retrofitting measures frequently used nowadays are also quantified: installing a ventilation system with heat recovery, improving the insulation of opaque construction elements, replacing the existing windows with high-thermal performance windows, and reducing air infiltration rates. These integrated actions on the house would reduce the annual energy demand below the requirements of both the Technical Building Code (24.24 kWh/m 2 year for this case of study), which is the regulation currently in force in Spain, and the well-known Passivhaus standard (15 kWh/m 2 year), which is one of the most widespread building standards in Europe. Compliance with these requirements means that the annual energy demand and the size of the heating system would respectively be potentially reduced by 81% and 57% of the present values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is an activity linked to the environment and has a great influence on climate change. As more and more crops are producing in less time, agricultural production is intensified and water consumption and energy demand is increasing. Since the energy consumed is not renewable, greenhouse gases (GHG) are emitted and their concentration in the atmosphere increases. The objective of this article is to apply various methodologies for the precise quantification of the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) and GHG emissions in the management of irrigation water and energy in ten water user's associations (WUAs) in the southeast of Spain. All the studied WUAs include irrigation facilities. This paper is based on obtained data in different water and energy audits during 2017. The concept of "irrigation water management" considered in the article covers the process from its extraction through management data to its transport and application to crops through irrigation systems, as well as the reception of water. The way in which water and energy is used to irrigate crops is taken into account. Moreover, the type of energy used for irrigation and at what moment energy is demanded influence the total amount of generated GHG emissions. The tariff periods for electricity and the water needs of the crops planted also has to be taken into account, as well as the economic emissions valuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trend in energy consumption, with a particular focus on heating and cooling demand, is an issue that is relevant to the promotion of new energy policies and more efficient energy systems. Moreover, heating and cooling energy demand is expected to rise in the next several decades, mainly due to climate change as well as increasing incomes in developing countries. In this context, the building sector is currently a relevant energy-intensive economic sector in Morocco; it accounts for 33% of the country's total energy demand (as the sector with the second highest energy demand, after the transport sector), with the residential sector accounting for 25% and the tertiary sector accounting for 8%. Aiming to reduce energy dependence and promote sustainable development, the Moroccan government recently issued a comprehensive plan to increase the share of renewables and improve energy efficiency. This strategy includes novel thermal building regulations promoted by the Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency. This paper analyzes the thermal behavior and heating-cooling energy demand of a residential building located in Tangier (Morocco) as a case example, based on the country's new thermal regulations and considering specific climatological conditions. A comparison with common Moroccan residential buildings as well as with those in nearby countries with similar meteorological conditions but significant differences in terms of energy demand regulation and requirements, such as Spain, is also included. Simulations were carried out using the DesingBuilder and EnergyPlus Software packages. According to the results, the last building thermal regulation requirements in Morocco need to be revised and extended in order to achieve the energy efficiency objectives established by the Moroccan government for 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]