Energy diagnosis, interventions on school buildings and systems to save energy and use energy produced from renewable sources. All this is now within reach of Italian schools thanks to the "Guide to energy efficiency in school buildings" created by ENEA and the Mission Structure for School Buildings of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, an operational tool for interventions energy requalification in schools.
It is a easy to read manual which in seventy pages addresses the issues of energy diagnosis, interventions on buildings and systems (with some examples of efficient schools in Italy) and public and private financial instruments available to school principals and administrators.
In addition to the 350 million euros from the Kyoto fund recently released by the Ministry of the Environment, they are also available for the redevelopment of school buildings national funding, European structural funds and the Thermal Account which encourages interventions to increase energy efficiency and the production of thermal energy from renewable sources.
“Collaboration between national institutions for the energy efficiency of school buildings must be extended to local authorities and to those who experience school every day: teachers, children, parents. The goal is to accelerate the redevelopment of our building stock, with an eye to saving the energy bill and one to the environment", he underlined Laura Galimberti, coordinator of the Mission Structure for School Construction of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
The Kyoto Fund is “a revolving fund at a subsidized rate for the implementation of energy efficiency measures on public buildings intended for education of all levels, including nursery schools. The new tender – he announced Silvia Velo, undersecretary of the Ministry of the Environment - which will be published shortly in the Official Gazette, reopens the door to access loans at a subsidized rate of 0,25% for those projects that will lead to an improvement of two classes of the energy efficiency parameter of the building ”.?
The Guide we are presenting today – he commented Federico Head, president of ENEA – is the first step towards a great challenge, that of transforming schools into high-performance buildings that are more beautiful, comfortable and suitable for learning. ENEA is already working on pilot projects with the use of innovative technological solutions and proposes itself as a catalyst towards the stakeholders of the sector to facilitate the implementation of interventions that are in themselves quite expensive”.
To date, there are over 40 buildings in Italy for exclusive or mainly school use - of which a third is concentrated in 10 provinces - with thermal consumption of 9,5 TWh/year and electricity consumption of 3,66 TWh/year. According to the School Building Registry, measures aimed at saving energy have already been implemented in 58% of school buildings, by installing photovoltaic panels, double glazing and double doors and windows or insulating the external walls and roofs.
