Tag Archives: european investment

smart buildings

Why smart buildings are beneficial?

Smart, or smartly designed buildings are not only a trend but a real need to use all available resources at hand to improve the living standards and contribute to create and maintain a sustainable place to live in, that is, in a smart living city.

Buildings in different countries must be designed according to the local climate in order to obtain the maximum of benefits for energy saving. For example, Punjab, India, proposed a practical approach for the new buildings’ design to use all the possible daylight for energy balance both in summer and winter.

What started with a declaration in 2001 known as Energy Conservation Act in Punjab, has turned recently into a law obliging all new buildings with a connected load of 100 kilowatt and more to follow a power-saving code through which it will be possible to reduce energy consumption by up to 40%. The code applies to all buildings with an air-conditioned area of 500 square meters, besides to complexes, group houses, offices, hotels, shopping zones, and private hospitals. According to Punjab Energy Development Agency (Peda), the code covers the following aspects: building aesthetics, envelope, mechanical system, the equipments for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning, interior and exterior lighting, and hot-water service, besides electrical power and motors for thermal comfort in non-central-AC buildings.

These actions pretend to involve different professionals related to construction and urban management, for instance, chief architects, chief town planners, local bodies, and agencies involved in clearing construction projects in urban centers. Of course, modern technologies are needed to drive towards sustainable urban energy systems.

This is also a valuable contribution to the environment protection since this practice allows to reduce notoriously greenhouse gases emissions. Actually, energy inefficient constructions are highly responsible for such emissions, according to IEA. Between now and 2050 a large portion of new buildings – equivalent to 40% of the world’s current building stock – will be built in cities in emerging and developing economies. The situation regarding inefficient buildings already constructed and the projection of new ones must be checked urgently if we want to prioritize the climate change – a hard but possible task, although many governments must cooperate and unite their efforts to promote serious regulations regarding new constructions and maintenance of old ones. This will revert positively in living conditions, safety, economic growth, just naming a few.

Sources:

New building code to save ‘40% power’ coming up in Punjab.

Make building standards top priority for tackling climate change.

Energy Technology Perspectives 2016.

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The European Commission looks for the opinion of experts to establish a Board for European Innovation

Europe has carried out great advances in the last years to improve the degree of technological innovation, amongst which there are increases in investment, improvements in the regulations that affect this activity, strengthening of innovation markets and the creation of measures that support these initiatives at the level of the different states, like the structural funds for European investment.

Even with these efforts and the fact that Europe is a land of innovation, it is losing the race before other geographical areas such as China and especially the United States, which are capable of introducing more disruptive novelties created by their own markets.

The board wishes to include the community within the common objective of easing the situation and has called for an online survey so that all types of innovators, including those who do not normally work with projects related to the European Commission, may present their points of view with respects to the launch of the European Board of Innovation which may be designed to improve Europe’s capacity to generate and amplify the vanguard of innovations.

This European Board of Innovation could bring together and simplify all helping processes for innovation, help the new projects that arise from it, and provide guidance on how to improve the environment in the European Union, in areas such as politics, regulations and its practices.

By following the link you will find more details on the initiative and how to participate in the survey , which is open until 29 April 2016.

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