Integrating urban form and distributed energy systems: Assessment of sustainable development scenarios for a Swiss village to 2050

The integration of renewable energy in the built environment, improving the energy efficiency of buildings, and optimizing distributed energy systems are three interconnected activities that are central for the transition to sustainable cities. Here, a methodology is developed to quantify not only these three activities simultaneously but also link them to the urban form. Two development scenarios (densification and expansion) are proposed for the village Hemberg in Switzerland for the years 2030 and 2050. The results show that, with reference to 2017, global warming increases the cooling demand of the buildings by 70% in 2030 and by 115% in 2050. The results also suggest that renovation is the key element for the future energy management and efficiency improvement in Hemberg because the building insulation has much greater effect on the energy demand than the urban form. Furthermore, the results suggest that a grid-integrated energy hub consisting of wind turbines and PV panels can supply 77% of the annual energy demand in 2050. Also, urban form has great effects on building-integrated PV generation and, in general, on the integration of renewable technologies. The results contribute to efficient energy planning and policy-making for the future energy transition in Hemberg. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.