Category:Cesena

The Municipality of Cesena

The Municipality of Cesena is located in northeast Italy, approximately 15 km from the Adriatic Sea. Along with Forlì, it is the capital of the Forlì-Cesena district, and covers an area of around 250km2. The city is located between 5 and 480m above the sea level, and the residential population of circa 97,000 is fairly concentrated, spread over slightly more than 7% of the total municipal area.

Building energy savings is a core theme for the administration in the municipality of Cesena, which in 2007 had already integrated a binding regulation for the construction of energy efficient facilities in its building code, based on the employment of environmentally-friendly components. The regulation set requirements more stringent than those already in force regarding energy performance, and it envisaged rewards for voluntary compliance.

The Municipality of Cesena is currently working on the new “Structural Plan” in accordance with the environmental targets of the council’s political programme for 2009-2014 so as to guarantee sustainable urban development and improve the citizens’ quality of life. The new Municipal Structural Plan envisages zero use of new territory, instead focusing on nearly zero energy building, social housing, sustainable mobility, and architectural quality.

Additionally, the Sustainable Energy Action Plan, drafted in 2011 following the endorsement of the Covenant of Mayors, considered the energy retrofitting of existing buildings and construction according to energy class A, as priority actions. In the SEAP there are two different scenarios for achieving the objectives set for 2020, one of which gives priority to the production of heat and power plants fueled by renewable energy sources (solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, biomass), thus limiting emissions CO2 and taking advantage of any incentives in place to partially cover the investment.

The challenge is therefore reaching nearly zero energy through the Passive House Standard supplied with renewable in line with the targets set by the EU for 2020, both in the residential housing and commercial/services sectors. This will surely require the involvement of all relevant stakeholders.