Net-Zero and Positive Energy Communities: Best Practice Guidance Based on the ZERO-PLUS Project Experience

Through the ZERO-PLUS project, a consortium of 32 partners from eight countries, including academic institutions, technology providers, architects, and construction companies, designed four communities covering completely different geo-climatic regions, construction practices, and cultural backgrounds in Cyprus, Italy, France, and the UK. The communities were designed, optimized, constructed, monitored, handed over to tenants, post-occupancy evaluated, and troubleshooted through a system of continuous collaboration and data acquisition. This book presents these case studies and shows how the project targets of reducing electricity consumption below 20 kWh/m2/y, increasing electricity production from Renewable Energy Systems to over 50 kWh/m2/y, and at cheaper costs when compared to current zero-energy buildings were reached and surpassed. These cases demonstrate that a holistic and interactive approach to design and construction can bring communities a high standard of sustainability.

The key features of the book include:

• Practical guidance drawn from the interdisciplinary, international, and remote cooperation between experts from academia and industry across the construction sector
• A survey of the state-of-the-art on net-zero and positive-energy communities, including the experience and the lessons learned from previous projects and from the ZERO-PLUS project
• Descriptions of novel emerging renewable energy technologies, integrated into real case study communities to achieve the energy generation target of the communities
• A comprehensive set of approaches, tools, guidelines, best practices, challenges, and lessons learned from the five-year ZERO-PLUS project and the completion of four residential case studies to inform the reader of how to achieve affordable net-zero energy communities
• Four typologies of residential communities located in different climatic conditions are presented, touching on the critical aspects of the design, construction, monitoring, and occupancy phase
• A discussion of future trends for developing communities that are more liveable, accessible, and sustainable and which can comply with new energy policies in a way that is affordable for the owners and residents.