Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings

Energy efficiency has a fundamental role; within such role, the energy efficiency of the buildings belonging to the Central Government has become a model through which make the transition from the traditional building-plant system to the advanced smart-building system easier. But, according to the latest developments, not all governments are prepared to deal with such a radical change as it is required to integrate the traditional model with the current financial system and the system of bank loan, which currently are too restrictive to promote the implementation of legislation quickly but with effective methods. However, in southern Italy there are significant limitations to the process of adoption of the measures of energy efficiency, in addition to frequent barriers that can be observed in most public buildings in Eu Member States. In fact, most of the whole property of the Public Administration belongs to the category of buildings bound for their historical and artistic value; for them, the removal of old technologies to be replaced with the most appropriate technologies in terms of performance, energy savings and environmental comfort, inevitably requires careful preliminary studies on the operational criteria that can be adopted, in order to combine the sustainable energy-saving with the requirements dictated for their conservation and protection. In not bound public buildings, the energy retrofit should concern the entire complex or urban district of buildings, to support a policy which fulfils the need to speed up the process of urban and environmental regeneration in the South, also in relation to the principles of smart city.