Fifteen years of research in sustainable energy systems at DTG

At the Department of Management and Engineering (DTG) of the University of Padova (Italy), the research team led by Prof. Renato Lazzarin, formed by the au-thors, worked during the first fifteen years of the millennium on different topics fo-cused on sustainable technologies for energy production and utilization. Both ex-perimental and theoretical/modelling studies were carried on: the energy impact of building insulation materials in Italy was analyzed, in terms of both Life Cycle As-sessment and Life Cycle Cost; the passive cooling in summer time and the enhanced insulating properties during winter time of a green roof installed at the Vicenza Hospital were assessed by suitable measurement sessions, and a predictive numeri-cal model was developed; a test rig was set at DTG to experimentally measure ener-gy performance of different photovoltaic/thermal modules, some of which were de-signed and built by the authors; a simulation software was developed to evaluate energy and economic advantages of direct and indirect evaporative cooling tech-niques; application of energy savings techniques for the refrigeration and air condi-tioning in supermarkets, and for energy production in different industry sectors were evaluated for some real cases; an extensive analysis of the urban heat island effect in the city of Padova was carried on both theoretically and experimentally. The paper summarizes the main ideas and results of the research during the fifteen years period work together.