Development of an early design tool for the sustainability assessment of positive energy districts: methodology, implementation and case-studies

The concept of Positive Energy District is one of the research ideas that embody the ambitions of decarbonization, renovation (both literal and in a wider perspective) and inclusivity for the urban environment portrayed in the EU activities. In this framework, the paper presents a modeling and simulation tool which allows for an early-design depth to be applied in the field of Positive Energy Districts renovation design and integrated performance assessment. The work aims at creating a tool for stakeholders and designers that would allow them to: a) Calculate carbon impacts along the life cycle for different technical systems and materials used for retrofitting; b) Compute use stage carbon emissions, including import-export of electricity; c) Computations of PED carbon emission balances, along the expected useful life of the district computing both embodied and the use stage carbon emissions. The tool has been created as a spreadsheet including typical profiles of energy use per building archetype, with the inclusion of available and free Life Cycle Assessment data within the life cycle carbon assessment and aims at jointly developing use stage and life cycle considerations. It was tested on a district case studies in the EU.