The “A plate for efficiency” prize awarded by the GSE to the University of Padua
The University of Padua wins the prize “A plate for efficiency” awarded to the University by GSE, Gestore dei Servizi Energetici – GSE S.p.A., for the work carried out on the “Ex Ospedale Geriatrico” – Beato Pellegrino building complex.
GSE, an Italian joint-stock company, controlled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which plays a central role in the promotion and development of renewable energy sources in Italy, has chosen the “Ex Geriatric Hospital” – Beato Pellegrino building complex for the the complexity of the renovation work, carried out on a single building, and for having managed to combine energy efficiency with the preservation of the beauty of the architectural complex. Not only that, Padua is the first Italian university to be awarded a GSE prize and the former Geriatric Hospital – Beato Pellegrino complex is the University’s first gas-free building.
The university complex in Via Beato Pellegrino is a perfect example of sustainable urban regeneration,” says University of Padua Rector Rosario Rizzuto. Giving new life and fully reintegrating historic places in the city into the urban fabric, as will be the case for the areas of the former Piave barracks and the Fusinato student house, has been one of the main objectives of my mandate from the outset. I am therefore delighted to be able to certify the via Beato Pellegrino campus as the first gas-free building at the University of Padua. Thermo-acoustic insulation, insolation and related solar screening, use of renewable energy through heat pumps and heat recovery, use of geothermal probes and the use of photovoltaic panels are the synergistic interventions through which it has been possible to use electricity – and not the fossil fuel envisaged in the original project – as a primary source, with a reduction in emissions equal to 42 tonnes less CO2 in the air per year”. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
The complex, which will open on 30 September 2019, is spread over an area of around 15,000 square metres to the north of the historic centre that once housed the city’s geriatric hospital. The project made available an area of about 23,000 square metres and a volume of about 105,000 cubic metres, at a total cost of about 40 million euro. The Humanities Hub has a large library of about 4,500 sqm with about 300 seats, 2,300 sqm of teaching rooms with about 1,500 seats, and offices for about 400 workstations.
The project was oriented towards ensuring a high level of sustainability, through a synergic approach that coordinated aspects such as thermal and acoustic insulation, sunlight and sunshades, the use of renewable energy through pumps and heat recovery, the use of geothermal probes and photovoltaic panels (the latter taking into account aspects of architectural compatibility, linked to the presence of three 19th-century cloisters). These solutions have allowed the use of electricity as a primary energy source and not a fossil fuel as envisaged in the original project, with a reduction in CO2 emissions of 42,400 kg per year. The project has eliminated gas from the campus and achieved a remarkable level of energy efficiency, as well as creating a building that emits 44% less greenhouse gases than a similar building in terms of size and characteristics. In addition, as a result of this change, the University of Padua obtained a monetary incentive of over 400,000 euros, again from the GSE, equal to 24.1% of the cost of the interventions carried out subject to the incentive and 1.03% of the total cost of the energy and functional upgrading.
The facility is located in an area in the city centre of Padua, close to the medieval walls. The historical pre-existence of the complex can be traced back to the Convent of the Blessed Pellegrino with the church of the same name, dating back to the 16th century, but profoundly remodelled since the second half of the 19th century. The building complex, as it has come down to us, is the result of a building development that began around 1880 and continued until the 1960s. In 2005, the University of Padua purchased the entire building complex, which was no longer in use, in order to install the new University Humanities Centre there, after a major redevelopment and renovation, and to create a new library, an auditorium, and teaching and administrative areas. The project developed has rigorously preserved the layout and architectural elements characterising the 19th-century part, while the 20th-century part has been completely reorganised with both new buildings and the internal restructuring of the only preserved building. Adjacent to this building, perfectly integrated with it, the four new buildings are freely designed to meet the different functional requirements of the complex.
The fundamental objective of the plant design was to achieve a high level of performance and comfort, together with the integration of distributions and terminals within the building volumes. Despite the fact that this is a highly energy-intensive complex, and despite the stringent architectural and structural constraints, the project nevertheless managed to achieve high energy performance: it made it possible to design a system which, by eliminating the use of gas and therefore connection to the public supply network, is able to guarantee highly efficient summer and winter air conditioning of the entire complex, essentially through a geothermal system. To further increase the plant efficiency of the complex, a system was also installed to recover the heat dissipated by the electrical equipment in the IT technical rooms in the basement of the new building. The recovered thermal energy is fed into the general district heating network of the entire complex. For the air-conditioning of the rooms, all the spaces served have been designed according to a modular criterion, in cells, each equipped with all the mechanical and electrical systems suitable for their intended use. Depending on the use of the rooms, different air conditioning systems have been implemented: the classrooms and offices are equipped with primary air systems and ceiling fan coils, the auditorium and lecture hall are air conditioned with a “full air” system, and the library is equipped with an air system integrated with radiant floor systems. The area dedicated to the archiving of antique books is also integrated with a continuous humidity control and air filtration system, aimed at ensuring the best conservation of paper. In order to achieve high standards of environmental comfort combined with maximum energy saving, all the buildings have been equipped with primary air renewal systems with treatment units equipped with special room air quality probes to modulate the flow rate according to instantaneous needs. All the energy consumption of the complex is constantly monitored by means of meters connected to a central supervision system and archived in order to allow subsequent analysis and verification, also of a scientific nature. The solutions adopted for the building envelope, both for the upgraded and the new construction parts, and for the air conditioning and electrical systems, have made it possible to determine a specific energy consumption of 99.30 kWh/(m2 per year), giving the building complex the energy performance class A2. The structure of the BMS (Building Management System) and the possibility of storing a large amount of measurements will offer a valuable tool for increasing the energy efficiency of air conditioning systems, especially, but not only, with regard to the use of geothermal heat pumps.