Sustainable Urban Areas for 2030 in a Post-COVID-19 Scenario: Focus on Innovative Research and Funding Frameworks to Boost Transition towards 100 Positive Energy Districts and 100 Climate-Neutral Cities

Self Cite

This Special Issue of Energies “Smart Cities and Positive Energy Districts: Urban Perspectives in 2020” introduce contemporary research on Smart Cities and on Positive Energy Districts. The topic highlights the variety of research within this field: from the analysis of 61 Positive Energy Districts cases to papers illustrating the Positive Energy Districts dimension or Smart Energy Communities supporting low carbon energy transition as well as selected Smart Cities Experiences. The focus is thus given on how RD&I stakeholders and Municipalities are facing sustainable urban development challenges. An overview of Horizon Europe RD&I program on sustainable urban areas is provided.

Section: Published Papers Highlightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Published Papers Highlightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Smart Cities and Positive Energy Districts: Urban Perspectives in 2020

Maestosi

2021

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“…The EU has been investing in sustainable urban development research for over twenty years [6] and has recently announced the mission [7] to guide the transformation of 100 Eu-ropean cities to climate neutrality by 2030, supporting the cities through different financial means, e.g., the new framework program Horizon Europe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining Sufficiency, Efficiency and Flexibility to Achieve Positive Energy Districts Targets

Erba

Pagliano

2021

Energy efficiency, generation from renewable sources and more recently energy flexibility are key elements of present sustainability policies. However, we are beginning to see a recognition of the need to couple technological solutions with lifestyle and behavioral changes, sometimes labeled under the term “sufficiency”. Appropriate policies and design principles are necessary to enable sufficiency options, which in turn reveal that there is a bidirectional influence between the building and the district/city level. In this context, the authors discuss how city and building re-design should be implemented combining energy efficiency, flexibility, production from renewables and sufficiency options for achieving a positive energy balance at the district level even within the constraints of dense cities. Based on a review of recent advances, the paper provides a matrix of interactions between building and district design for use by building designers and city planners. It also compares possible scenarios implementing different strategies at the building and urban level in a case study, in order to evaluate the effect of the proposed integrated approach on the energy balance at yearly and seasonal time scales and on land take.

“…New customer preferences are increasingly cited among the factors influencing the opera-tion and profitability of businesses. These are related to the conscious need to care for the natural environment [19][20][21][22][23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decline in Share Prices of Energy and Fuel Companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange as a Reaction to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Bieszk‐Stolorz

Markowicz

2021

Many factors influence the prices of energy commodities and the value of energy and fuel companies. Among them there are the following factors: economic, social, environmental and political, and recently also the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the paper is to examine what the probability and intensity of a decrease in the prices of shares of energy and fuel companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (Poland) was during the first wave of the pandemic in the first quarter of 2020. The study used the survival analysis methods: the Kaplan-Meier estimator, the test of equality of duration curves and the Cox non-proportional hazards model. The analysis showed that the probability and intensity of price decline of energy and fuel companies in the initial period was the same as that of other companies. The differences become apparent only after 50 days from the established maximum of their value. The risk of price declines in energy and fuel companies increased significantly. This situation was related both to a temporary reduction in demand for energy and fuels, pandemic restrictions introduced in individual countries and the behaviour of stock market investors.