Towards Near-zero Energy Buildings: Lessons Learnt from the RE-cognition project

The building sector is accountable for the 40% of the energy consumed and 36% of carbon emissions in the EU. At the same time, ambitious energy targets are required for a substantial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the forthcoming years. To tackle this challenge, a possible approach consists in boosting the adoption of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) at the places where energy is consumed (decentralized approach), minimizing carbon emissions. Hence, the path towards near-zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs) is regarded as one of the most viable solutions to meet the de-carbonization goal. However, a certain technological and policy-driven push is required for improving the actual inefficient European building stock. In this context, the RE-cognition project proposes an ICT (information and communications technologies) integration framework on top of established and ad-hoc designed renewable energy technologies. This paper presents how such an integration framework can be applied to a real building. The case study is a facility located in Turin, Italy, known as Energy Center, where companies, public administration and university researchers are hosted. Here, the existing photovoltaic system (PV), ground-source heat pump (GSHP) and district heating substation (DH) are coupled with a newly developed Latent Heat Thermal Storage (LHTS) and an innovative micro turbine for the cogeneration of heat and power (m-CHP). Results discuss the insights gained in advancing this pilot site towards an effective near-zero Energy Building.