Energy networks in sustainable cities: Towards a full integration of renewable systems in urban area

The European Commission is supporting many projects intended to improve the use of renewable energy sources and a special attention has been devoted to the case of large scale urban areas. The project POLYCITY represents a significant demonstration of this energy policy which is applied to 3 cities: Barcelona, Stuttgart and Torino. The case of Torino appears of particular relevance because it is dedicated to the improvement of existing building and installations which is in our opinion the most frequent situation. In particular the most qualifying characteristic of Torino project is the installation of a new combined heat and power generator (CHP) coupled with the existing district heating and an absorption chiller in order to supply energy more efficiently in a district which include the Housing Authority of the Province of Torino (ATC) and 30 council buildings. The paper describes this project highlighting the use of renewable sources and the initial results. The preliminary assessment of our experiment will be discussed according to socio-economic, environmental and energetic indicators.