Multifunctional Environmental Energy Tower: a case study of an innovative system for renewable energy exploitation

In a context of increasing interest in energy efficiency, the attention to the environmental quality is bringing the city of the future to be structured on energy smart grids for electricity, heat and natural gas production and distribution. The Multifunctional Environmental Energy Tower intends to be considered as a node in the future Smart Grid of the borough "Rome EUR", to decrease the primary energy consumption from fossil fuels, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to maximize the energy production from renewable sources, as required by the European Union objectives at 2020. Renewable energy generation systems are integrated in a single vertically developed building, where energy is mainly produced from waste in integration with thermal and electrical energy storage systems, to create an intelligent tower combining and meeting together energy demand and supply. This integrated system allows to overcome some problems related to the renewable energy sources usage: their non-programmability, the land occupation and consumption, the social acceptance and the imbalances in the electricity grid. The designed building produces electricity for the grid, ensuring the air conditioning for Acea's company utilities and to feed the existing heating district network located in "Torrino-Mezzocammino" district within "Rome Eur" borough. The architectural components were designed to link the architectural view and the functional aspects, because its location within the roman roads net developing from the "Grande Raccordo Anulare" (GRA) the tower is configured as a totem of energy efficiency and technological innovation. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.