Energy and Environmental Aptitude (EEA) to Assess Solar Energy Exploitation in Cities

Abstract

In Argentina, the number of residential buildings (homes) has grown 20% in the last decade (2000-2010), thus increasing the level of non-renewable energy consumption of the residential area per inhabitant (0.25 TOE per capita per year in 2000, 0.3 TOE per capita per year in 2010) and lowering the construction quality. This situation has a significant impact on the GHG emissions to the environment. Within this context, this paper aims to assess the energy and environ- mental aptitude (EEA) of residential building groups in characteristic urban areas (urban mosaics), to estimate the potenti- ality of solar energy and energy efficiency exploitation. To begin with, the following urban area variables were calculated from aerial and satellite image classification techniques: i. Horizontal heat dissipation area; ii. Construction system of horizontal heat dissipation area ? Roofs; iii. Vertical heat dissipation perimeter ? Walls; iv. Built-up area height. Then, obtained results were exposed on two characteristic urban areas, differing in the compactness of its fabric, what allowed to evaluate that the urban area of greater compactness presented lower energy loss and similar EEA in relation to the urban area of lower compactness. This conclusion contributes to the discussion about the diffuse city and the compact city, since it reinforces the need to develop urban conglomerates with greater building compactness.