Identity and user data theft, ransomware, phishing, pharming or denial-of-service attacks are terms that appear more and more in the media1,2,3,4. The hyper-connected world in which we live also affects companies that, as productive entities, are increasingly exposed to being the target of cybercrimes 5,6,7. Existing campaigns to raise awareness in cybersecurity are very diverse, but how can companies protect themselves against all these threats without compromising their final business objectives?
Traditionally, cybersecurity orchestration in industrial environments has been delegated almost exclusively to the company´ s IT department, which have focused on protecting office networks, applying well-known standards and regulations such as: ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 15408 or ISO/ICE 19790. For these cybersecurity expert teams, “your best defense is a good offense”. This quote by the Chinese general Sun Tzu (author of the book “The Art of War”, considered a masterpiece on strategy) underlies the background of what are known as penetration tests (or pentesting). Pentesting tests are basically a set of simulated attacks against a computer system with the sole purpose of detecting exploitable weaknesses or vulnerabilities so they can be patched. Why are these tests so important? Several studies show that most attacks exploit known vulnerabilities collected in databases such as CVE, OWASP or NIST that for various reasons have not already been addressed 8,9.
In the IT sector, some of the most popular security audit methodologies and frameworks for pentesting are: Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM), Information Systems Security Assessment Framework (ISSAF), Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), and Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES). Each of these methodologies follows a different strategy to perform the penetration test according to the type of application to be audited (native mobile apps, web applications, infrastructure…), being in this sense complementary approaches.
On a practical level, IT teams have a large number of tools to perfomr these tests both free and/or open-source and paid applications. Some of the best known are: Metasploit (Community Edition), NESSUS (Personal Edition), Saint, Nmap, Netcat, Burp Suite, John the Ripper or Wireshark. Most of these tools are already pre-installed in specific pentesting distributions such as Kali Linux, BlackArch Linux or Parrot Security.
However, office networks, of which the IT department is in charge, are not the only existing networks in an industrial company. Today, there is a growing number of production-related devices (PLC, SCADA, …), normally interconnected by fieldbus networks, that support the Internet TCP/IP protocol such as PROFINET or MODBUS TCP. Thanks to the routing function available in PLCs of some brands, it is possible to access to field buses that could not be accessed from the outside in the past, such as PROFIBUS, through gateways. The interconnection between IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operation Technology) networks, so necessary when talking about Industry 4.0, greatly increases the chances of the industry being a target of cyberattacks.
In the next article, we will talk about how we can defend ourselves against such a threat …
As we mentioned in our previous post, companies OT (Operation Technology) networks are no exception from suffering cyberattacks. So far, there have been multiple cyber-attacks suffered by industrial companies since the first registered one in 2010 that had a direct impact on the physical world1. These security incidents affect a wide range of entities ranging from large technology companies to final products suppliers2. All industrial infrastructures, and not only the critical ones, are in the crosshairs of cyber criminals or crackers, in which the OT sector is in a certain way “negligent”, since alomst 90% of vulnerabilities and attack vectors present in an industrial system are identifiable and exploitable using strategies widely known by the attackers, with 71% being extremely high or critical risk as they can partially or totally take to a halt all the company production activity3.
Given this outlined panorama, a series of questions should arise: Are there appropriate kit tools adapted to these OT network environments? Can cybersecurity experts protect the industry OT scenario? The detection and exposure of vulnerabilities that affect the resources associated with OT networks, key elements in the automation of industrial plants, is shown as a compulsory step for any penetration test. Once these vulnerabilities have been identifies, it will be possible to take the necessary preventive measures, adapting existing solutions and well-known good practices from the IT environment to the OT world, and not carrying out a direct implementation of them.
Some attempts to adapt existing standards are IEC 62443, based on the ISA 99 standar, which sets up the international reference framework for cybersecurity in industrial systems, or ISO/IEC 27019:2013 which provides guiding principles for the management of information security applied to the world of the process control systems. Regarding specific tools, we find, among others, the ControlThings platform, which is a specific Linux distribution to exposure vulnerabilities in industrial control systems, without forgetting tools dedicated to get a real-time asset inventory in the OT infrastructure like IND from Cisco, eyeSight from ForeScout (these are paid applications) or GRASSMARLIN opne source which passively maps the network and visually shows the topology of the different ICS/SCADA systems present in the network. The different objectives liable to be attacked in an OT environment in a specific way can be found in databases such as MITTRE-ATT&CK.
Nevertheless, these attempts at standardization are not enough and it is essential to continue going on different fronts supporting initiatives such as the following:
To allow experts from the OT environment to take the initiative and learn how to protect their systems. To train them in the correct way to commission the devices of these type of networks, making that commissioning easier for non-IT experts and thus, avoiding the possibility of misconfigurations due to lack of the associated technical information (simplifying the security aspect of this).
Improve the adaptation of SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solutions to the OT networks, so that they ae less intrussive than current ones and making them to identify patterns that are typical of the indsutrial process networks, allowing and early identification of anomalous situations4.
Put into practice new ways of cyberprotecting industrial systems, not focused on the continuous software updating and/or the periodic investments on them5.
Until not long ago, OT network systems have run disconnected from the outside world and therefore with a false feeling of being secure6. However, the protection of these OT environments should be prioritized, as well as the creation of new professional profiles in OT cybersecurity, capable of understanding the needs and particularities of these specific environments.
Cogeneration refers to the simultaneous production of electricity and heat, our two main basic energetic needs. The benefits of these technologies are multiple:
It´ s 40% more efficient than producing electricity and heat separately.
Together with these energetic save, the CO2 emissions and the generation costs are lower.
It can take advantage of renewable sources such as biomass and biogas.
It improves system security bu generating the requried amount of electricity and heat and absorbing the implied variability of renewable generation from wind and solar.
The transport and distribution costs are reduced, generally the energy it´ s consume at the same place where it is produce.
In addition to the fact that cogeneration has as an objective covering the propper energy needs , we can see that, according to the Report of the Spanish Electric System elaborated by The Spanish Electricity Grid corresponding to 2019, it is able to cover almost an 12% of the spanish demand with just a 5% of the participation in the national installed power. At a european level, the cogeneration provides an 11% of the electricity consume and a 15% of the heat.
Also the European Commision recognise the need of the presence of the cogeneration in the energy system, mentioning in the Energy Efficiency Directive that “cogeneration of high efficiency has a significative potential for saving primary energy in the Union” and the need that “the member states promote the introduction of measures and procedures to promote the installations of cogeneration with a total nominal thermic power under 5mw with the aim of promtoing the generation of distributed energy”.
Even taking into account all the benefits mentioned, we can only find these type of technolgies in industrial areas or big buildings of the terciary sector. Due to that, an area with a high potential is the development of micro-cogeneration, that is to say, low power cogeneration systems (under 50kW) that generate the heat and the electricity needed for covering the energy needs of residential buildings. This aspect is key both for the development of the local energy communities in which the figure of the passive consumer is blurred and for the consecution of one of the big environmental objectives, the climate neutrality.
Inside the nowadays cogeneration systems, we can find two big groups:
Conventional internal combustion engines coupled to an electric generator and from which heat is recovered from the exhaust gases and cooling systems. They usually operate usinig natural gas or diesel as fuel, reaching overall efficiencies of 80-90%.
Microturbine systems consisting of an open cycle gas turbine in which air is drawn in from the atmosphere, compressed by a rotary compressor and fed into the combustion chamber and then used for expansion in a turbine. The electric energy it is obtaines from an alternator, meanwhile the heat it´ s recover from the scape gases. They reach overall yields among the 90%. The fundamental difference compared with the previous ones is that turbines are designed for function in a stationary regime, meanwhile engines allow a wider regulation. Also, the temperature of the scape gases of the turbines is higher, being normally around 300-400ºC. The fuel mostyl used is natural gas, but in this case is possible using other more sustainable such as biogas.
As we have seen, most of nowadays systems used fossil fuels, what it is not adequate according to the environmental commitments adquired. In 2018 just the 4% of the energy generated through cogeneration proceed from renewable sources such as biofuels and residues (The energy in Spain 2018, MITECO)
Fortunately, exists technologies both in the market and in the development phase focused on covering needs. In first place, we can call the technology of hybrid photovoltaic generation, able of generate both electricity and hot water of low temperature (60-70ºC) usable in building air-conditioning systems. The infrastructure need for the installation of these collectors is not very different from that used in the usual installation of photovoltaic panels, including the necessary piping for the water inlet and outlet.
Another technology that is experiencing great growth due to its strategic nature is the hydrogen or fuel cell. This system take advantage of electrochemistry processes to transform a fuel, the hydrogen, and a oxidising agent, the oxigen in the air, in a electric current and heat. The particularity of hydrogen as fuel is that present a huge energy density, it can move through ducts similar to natural gas (although under special conditions) and it could be generated from the electrolysis of water usin renewable energy sources.
Source: https://www.cnh2.es/pilas-de-combustible/
Of course, the technology mention could be combined with other for multiplying their possibilities: heat pumps both powered by the electricity generated and using the heat generated to increase their performance, hybridisation together with storage systems that allow for intelligent management, etc.
CARTIF participate in several projects that integrate cogeneration systems in residential environments:
SUNHORIZON: has as an objective showing that the propper combination of technologies such as solar panels (photovoltaic, hybrid, thermal) and heat pumps (thermal compressor, adsorption, reversible) manage with a controller with predictive capacities allow saving energy, maximize the use of renewables, increase the self-consumption, reduce the energy bill and reduce the CO2 emissions.
REGENBy2: we contribute to the development of a new integrated energy plant, able of convert any type of thermal source of renewable energy, of low or high temperature, in electricity, heating and/or cooling simultaneously.
HysGRID+: its objective is to promote the cooperation of spanish technology centres with a high level of complementarity with the aim of research and develop new technological solutions that enable the creation of local energy communities (LEC) with a positive net balance of high efficiency and based in hybrid systems of renewable generation and storage. In the context of this project, CARTIF, has been able of installing two test benches: one for testing heat pumps of up to 100kW thermal, and other for characterize the behaviour of hybrid PVT solar panels.
H24NewAge: we develop advance technologies throughout all the hydrogen value chain for finally create a infrastrcutures network for giving service to the companies and as a demonstration of the develop hydrogen technologies. The final aim is that the project became a reference for the spanish business network facilitating a transfer of bidirectional and adaptable knowledge. Other action is the research into the application of fuel cells in residential microgeneration.
The road transport is the main source of particles emissions in the urban environment and one of the most importantat at a global level. Consciouss of the gravity of the problem , the European Union established limits, each time more restrictive, for the scape emissions of the internal combustion motors in new vehicles, through the european regulation about emissions (EURO regulation), that vehicles manufacturers are so afraid of. This regulation focused in the vehicles, and other aimed to the control the emissions produced in the industry and in the thermal power plants of electric generation, have made possible that the concentration of particles in urban environments have being reduced in a notorious way in the last 15 years. It is fair to say, that part of those reduction has also been due to the increase use of the renewable energies, as for example the eolic, photovoltaic or thermal-solar energy. Biomass, on the other hand, eventhough it is a renewable energy source with a near-zero carbon footprint, contributes to the emission of particles due to the combustion process that allows its energetic exploitation. At last, nuclear energy, that in the next weeks it will start to be cosnider “green energy” by the European Commission, it could contribute in an efficient way not only to the reduction of the CO2 emissions, but also to the particle emissions.
Enethough, as it is said, the actual situation is better than the one 15 years before, it is not less true that with relative frequency particles concentration limits estalished by the World Health Organisation (10 μg/m3 for particles <2.5 μm) are overcome in much european urban cores.
How are nanoparticles classified and which are their associated risks?
The atmospheric particles, independently of their natural or antropogenic origin, are classified in thick particles PM10 (2.5-10 μm), thin PM2.5 (0.1-2.5 μm) and ultrathin PM0,1 (<0.1μm). According to the WHO, the thick particles PM10 can penetrate and lodge deeply into the lungs, meanwhile the thin particles PM2.5 assume a higher risk, they can cross the pulmonary barrier and enter into the blood system. The ultrathin particles PM0.1 are able of penetrating vital organs such as the liver or the brain, causing inflamatory and oxidative processes, with still unknown effects.
Numerous scientific studies carried out in the last two decades relation the short-time effects of the particles concentration increase with increase in the daily mortality and hospital admissions. Other studies advise about the high content of Polyciclic Aromatic Hydrocarbours (PAHs) that are found bonded to the particles fraction PM2.5 provenient from the combustion processes. At least 13 of the compounds that formed the family of the PAHs have been recognised as carcinogens by the WHO. This same organisation said that, in addition to cancer, the fraction of 2.5 particles caused cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses being the cause of 400,000 premature deaths only in Europe.
Source: https://www.elnorte.com
What are Non-Exhaust Emissions (NEE) and what is their contribution to road transport emissions?
Once introduced the problematic produced by the particle emissions, as well as their sources, we will focused in the NEE particles, that is to say, those emited by vehicles but that are non-provenient from the gas scape. These particles are originated throguh the wear and tear produced by the friction between pillows and brake discs, and between the wheels and the road surface.
In contrast to what happens with the emissions of particles in the scape gases, knowadays it doesn´ t exist any law that limits the emission of NEE particles, in fact, most part of the society isn´ t even consciouss of their existence.
But, the contribution of the NEE particles is representative if we comparewith the one of the scape gases?
Surprising as it may seem, the contribution of NEE particles it´ s not only representative, but since some years ago it is clearly superior. Data published by the Inventory of National Atmospheric Emissions of United Kingdom reveal that meanwhile the scape particles have been reduce in a notorious way in the last years, NEE particles has increase and are expected to continue to do so in the future. The source mentioned before states that, from the rimary particles emited by trnsport by road, the 605 of the PM2.5 and the 73% of the PM10 were due to NEE particles (measures carried out in United Kindom during 2016). Those percentages continue increasing as the scape emissions decrease, as it represents the graphic elaborated by the NAEI.
Source: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk
And what happens with the zero emissions vehicles?
The pollution by particles is specially problematic in the urban environments, therefore it is consider that electromobility can help decisively to fight the problem. However, due to the height of batteries, these vehicles have a notorious mass superior to the one of a equivalent car with a motor of interior combustion, which implies larger NEE particles emissions due to the wear and tearof the wheels and of the surface of the road. These larger emissions are somehow compensate by the smaller emissions produced by the dual regenerative/mechanical braking system for electric and hybrid vehicles. At present the net balance between the reduction of braking particles and the inrease of particles produced by the road and wheels of electric vehicles it is not quantified, but what is clear, is that these vehicles produced a level of NEE particles emissions, at least of the same order of magnitudeas the one of conventional cars.
Therefore, the label of “zero emissions” is in a way, if not in its entirety, misleading for the consumer. Evenmore if it is take in count that the 40% of electric energy generated in Spain in 2019, came from thermal power plants.
CARTIF research to reduce the emissions of NEE particles
CARTIF, consciouss of the problem of these particle emissions, has participated in a project proposal of the european programme Horizon Europe focused on study the magnitude, causes, efects of the emissions of NEE particles, as of develop solutions that avoid, or at least reduce, the emissions of them. Those proposal is focused on fleets of delivery vehicles and public transport vehicles such as buses and subways, taking place part of the field tests in the city of Valladolid. If such a project is finally financed by the European Commission, CARTIF will devote its best efforts to the search of solutions that allow reducing the emissions of NEE particles, a problem which detrimental effects are well known, despite being ignored by the majority of the society.
For some time now, experts and major international organisations have been talking about the onset of a major global food crisis. A crisis that would put more than 265 million people at risk of famine, double the pre-pandemic estimates by COVID-19 for 2020.
In reality, the reason and origin of this crisis isn´ t the lack of food. In fact, the statistical data shows that 2020 has been a year of abundant harvests in general at a global level. But the food crisis is coming it is because of the opposite. Is because there ir a surplus of food for a agrifood market with a broken demand because of the unemployment increase, because of the protectionism of the advanced economies and because of the colapse of the supply chain.
This crisis would oblige to the most disadvantaged to choose between protect their health or protect their livelihoods. The pandemia produced by the virus COVID-19 has caused a economic crisis that has led into a huge damage to the availability of food at a global level. On one side, the offer has broken, the farmers, the mainly distributors of perishable products (fruit and vegetables) are decreasing their production as its main clients (hotels, restaurants, schools, airports) have had to reduce, or even stop, their operations. This is causing surplus production that ruin the producers because they don´ t find their habitual buyers. If we put as an example the parishables products, what has occur is that the logistic problem have been stronger. Why? Because ther isn´ t only the mobility, but also there is the problem that is perishable. So if there is a delay in their transports exists a problem. For example, the asparagus. Most part of the asparagus are exported by plane and the cost of the plane is shared between passengers and load. As there isn´´ t passengers the cost of the load is so high, then it is no longer economically. The same occurs, for example, with fish. We also have the milk producers, who are being forced to pour thousand of litres of fresh milk in the last weeks, unable of placing the product. In India, huge tomato and banana crops have been wasted as a result of government restrictions on movement that have made it impossible to get produce to local markets by march 2020. Therefore the dilemma is how we can ensure that in 2022 the same amounts of produce, the same crops, will be planted as in 2020 or 2021, so that there is security of food availability for the coming years. It is difficult to predict how much in the present situation. If we don´ t help producers at this moment, they are not going to have liquidity to plant their next crops and then we will be under a huge problem of food shortage.
By the other side, there are the consumers. The houses experiencing economic difficulties and that are in an unemployment situation are running out of money. Including when the products are available in local markets. This phenomena in the developing countries it is worse, because, in addition to the citizens, the ones that are running out of money are the importers. Africa has received a huge economic shock because most countries are exporters of oil, much countries are exporters of cotton, as Mali, where all the contracts are being cancelled, are exporters of commodities of metal that also are fallen, or of coffee as Ethiopia that also falls or doesn´ t have Europe´ s capacity to be able to inject 3 trillion euros in the economy to revive it.
Countries as Argelia, Angola, Ecuator, Nigeria or Arabia Saudí depends on the incomes of oil exports to help to pay the imports and to finance the food subsidies for the most poor, however, with the economic contraction generated by the COVID the global demand of oil has collapsed and the crude oil barrel prices has fallen even going below zero for the first time in history.
To this must be added the uncertainty about the possible basic food price increase such as wheat and rice that, despite of being downward, they have experimented an increase and which analysts blame mainly on stockpiling, speculation and protectionism in the main producer countries and the richest importers. Between march and april of 2020, various of the main exporter countries of wheat such as Rusia, Ukraine or Kazajistan imposed quotas and suspensions to their exportations of rice, Turkia restricted its exports of lemons , Thailand of hen eggs and Serbia of sunflower seeds. Meanwhile, other countries where accumulating food with accelerated importations, such as Egypt, the major importer of wheat in the world, that buy huge quantities of french and russian grain to storage supplies for 8 months.
A chaining of suspensions and oversupply that took many back to the food price crisis of 2008. If we compare with the crisis of 2007-2008, then we had 33 countries putting restrictions and represented the 28% of the global exportations. Nowadays, what we have? We start with 16 countries that put restrictions to the exportations and today there are onlly 11. When they were 16 we were talking about around 6.5% of the share of the global exportations, now with 11 we are talking about the 2.5%, that is to said, it is nothing, the problem isn´ t there. In availability isn´ t. The dramatic situation is in the access. In Nigeria, one of the biggest rice importers and wheat of the world and at the same time one of the main exporters of oil, more and more supermarkets are having to close down because of the broken offer and demand. A disturbing scenario, which has already started to translate into protests, not only in Nigeria, but also in Kenia, Bangladesh, Honduras, SouthAfrica, and that many fear it will spread to the developed economies where the increase of prices could aggravate the inequality between rich and poors.
And although with the relaxation of the control measures of the pandemia also have been relating some of the restrictions of the exporter countries, much poor countries will have to choose between protecting their health or protecting their livelihoods.
No doubt about it, the pandemia has caused a dramatic loss of human lifes in the hole world and it presents an unprecedented challenge with deep social and economic consequences, that includes commit the food security and the nutrition. The food sustainability is maybe one of the most sensible and important points of the 2030 development sustainable agenda published by the ONU. A world problematic to which we have not given the importance it deserves.
Nevertheless, and with all that, the economists defend the increase, and yes, lots of countries need to grow, the issue maybe is which ones? In America they don´ t need more lawyers, in Europe, too many bureaucrats in Brussels. But the planet has a supply problem. In five years there will be shortage of water and food, in that way it is announced by the scientific expert Vaclav Smil. We should grow in the correct direction.
There isn´ t growth without risk. Each advance has a risk to be considered. Without data, we can´ t take decisiones. But even having the best numbers it should be consider the unpredictable, the no numeric aspect. It is easy to reduce the Co2 emissions in Denmark. But Nigeria today lives as the daneses in 1850, what they can be asked to reduce?
We are in a global economy , but it doesn´ t exist a global solution equal to all. The cost of reducing emissions it shouldn´ t be propotional, if not a la carte. It is not the same growing for surviving that for expanding the economy. An example is India. It is near to go beyonf China as the country with more population in the world (the ONU expects it by 2027), however, it consumes one third less of energy. It can not be measured the economy apart from the population. The dinamism is fundamental for maintaining it alive. Everybody knows that USA is the most dynamic economy in the world. China it could be bigger, but there are 1412 million of chinese and only 331 million of americans.
What is then the progress? Having the child population vaccinated, nourished, with a life expectancy that goes from the 40 to the 80 years and with an education and health guaranteed by the state? Spain is at the top of the life expectancy, together with Japan, despite nowadays Spain eats lots of meat. How much is a lot? During 1940 they were ate 8kg of meat per capita, now in 2021 near 200kg. Human being is omnivore. The key is in the “omni” that means “all”. It implies variety and not exceding with nothing. Without the synthesis of fertilizers there will be generalized hunger- without nitrogen plants will grow less and there will be for all. Fertilizers are not only use for increasing fortunes, also feeds global population. Global public health it isn´ t impossible, it´ s a challenge. Crops can be better planified and improved the fertilizers. Cows can eat alfalfa. We do not. But we don´ t eat only cows, we have to feed them. Almost everything in this planet is question of balance.
The country with most overweight is Arabia Saudí, with more than 70% of the population. A 12% of the global population is underfeed and a 75% overfeed. Obesity epidemic has more relation with poverty or with cars? The answer is multifactorial: genetic order, diet helps and the exercise or the activity compensates. Frugality is education? What is little? There is people that thinks that three cars are not very and others consider that one it´ s a lot. Education is not everything. High education only has one result that is the mayor probability of winning more money. But this data is not infallible, we just have to see the amount of graduates that are in Spain, however, they have seem forced to emigrate.
The world is a very complex machine. Where a risk ends, another starts. We just have to think in the pandemia. The world is a risk place where we should make decisions, where big decissions matters and they have an effect.
What does it mean the tears of Alon Sharma during the closure of the COP26 of Glasgow?
Only one week separate us from the celebration of the last Conference of the United Nations about the Climate Change (COP26), and in my mind has been recorded the downcast image of Alok Sharma, president of the COP26, during the closure of the height. Why? After many comings and goings, the world representatives haven´ t been able to reach an agreement about the emissions that the world activity should generate for not destroying our planet and reaching being sustainable.
In our hand is the solution, and for that we should continue working through a carbon neutral energy transition if we really pretend to reach the objectives of the Climate Pact in 2050. So much sectors are affected by this process of decarbonization, in which the definition of new production strategies and use of digital enablers technologies position themselves as key elements through a reduction of carbon emissions to the atmosphere, promoting the move about through a more efficient and less pollutant model.
The building sector is not alienated to this problematic. The reports of the European Union evidence that the building sector is the responsable of about 40% of the energy consume and 36% of the CO2 emissions in their operation phase, that is, during the use phase of the building already built. On the other hand, almost the 70% of the existent houses in Europe aren´ t energy-efficient as they present deficient or scarce energy conservation measures focused for that purpose. From this 70%, the 30% are houses with more than 50 years of antiquity that require of several rehabilitation interventions and improvements in their structure or management in order to achieve the energy consume values in accordance with the provisions of the European directive of Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EPBD- Energy Performance of Buildings Directive – 2010/31/UE, and his amenden version of the directive 2018/844/EU).
In consequence, and with the purpose of contributing efficiently to the global climatic objective, the existing building stock must experience a deep transformation and become more intelligent and more efficient. On the other hand, meanwhile the implementation of new skills and technologies are relatively easy to integrate in the new buildings and constructive processes, pushed by the increasing need of the digitalization of the sector through the 4.0 Construction, it is still necessary improving the solutions research that allows reducing the energy consume and increasing the efficiency of buildings and infrastructures already existing in the city.
Below this context, the implementation of enablers technologies that allow to encourage and increasing the efficient use of energy at the edification is fundamental, understanding these technologies as solutions that allow reducing the quantity of energy that is required by a building for been construct or rehabilitated,inhabited, maintained and demolished. Focusing the spotlight in the phase that occupies the biggest number of years inside the building life cycle, this is, the use phase, ocupation and maintenance of the same, we will reach an efficient building energeticly speaking, if we are able of providing thermic, luminic,air quality comfort, etc. to their inhabitants with the less use of energy possible, and in consequence with less green house gases emissions and a bigger economic saving.
These enablers technologies can be classified into 4 cathegories according to the building element on which we want to act for improving their efficiency or energy performance, including the user of the building itself.
1. Energy conservation measures:
Inside this group are encompassed all those measures that improve the physic structure of the building, either by:
The implementation of passive measures, as the insulation of the facade or changing windows.
The implementation of active measures, as the installation of a new boiler more efficient or that use a fuel less pollutant.
The installation of renewable solutions, as solar panels.
The installation of conventional instrumentation (sensors, actuators and controllers) and intelligent instrumentation (as thermostats or intelligent counters).
Although the fisrt ones are already widely spread between the owners community, in several cases they are not choosen with a endorsed criteria because of the energy and economic savings calculations. Are also not usually applied in a combined way, allowing obtaining more flexibility in the generation and consume of energy (even going as far as self-consumption), mainly if we put into play solutions of energy generation based in renewable sources. At CARTIF we have been investigating and providing solutions to this problem for several years, through the digitalization (based in BIM), automatization and optimization of the design process of rehabilitation solutions in buildings and districts. These thematics are covered in projects such as OptEEmAL or BIM-SPEED.
2. Connected systems and devices
It is not enough with having instrumentation devices or automatization networks in our buildings (including legacy systems or already existent in the house, such as domestic appliances or other informatic systems), but that such devices should be connected to a network such as Internet to make them accessible in a remote way and offer the possibility of exchange information and being controlled. In this domain operates the famous Internet of Things (IoT). Its purpose is to offer the capacity of access to all the devices of the house to be able to collect information about their signal and status, and at the same time could storage those information in persistent and secure means. The information is power, and through the connectivity solutions and the IoT monitorization we will have at our disposal the data about the actual status of our building and with the capacity of making fundamental decisions. This is the base through the achievement of the named “Intelligent Building”. CARTIF, through its projects BaaS,BREASER, E2VENT or INSITER implements several solutions of signal monitorization as a base to the generation of management systems and building control or BEMS (Buildiing Energy Management Systems).
3. Advance strategies for the management, operation, flexibility and maintenance of the building
Once the information about the behaviour and status of the house is in our power, can be raised and develop building control strategies able to react in response to the user needs (reactive building) or even to anticipate the needs of the same (proactive and intelligent building). In this second case, the implementation of techniques and algorithms of Artifical Intelligence, powered by the data previously monitorized, are essential for learning and capture the knowledge both of the behaviour of the building and of their occupants. This will make available services with expert knowledge to be able to control and optimize the behaviour of the building, predicting their possible thermic and electric demand and offering flexibility and storage solutions, or anticipating possible failures of their energy systems, between other possibilities. This puzzle piece is fundamental for the achievement of the “Autonomous and Intelligent Building“, by making the building into an entity capable of making decisions without the intervention of their inhabitants, but learning from their behaviour. The help decision-making and auto-management systems of the buildings are based on intelligent and advance strategies, as it is about covering in projects such as MATRYCS, Auto-DAN or frESCO in which CARTIF take part nowadays.
4. Training and awareness of the users/inhabitants of the building
At last, but not for that reason less important, the user of the building (inhabitant, manager, owner or operator) presents a fundamental role in the fight towards the increase of the energy efficiency. The buildings are created for and to the inhabitants, and guarantee their comfort both thermal, luminic and environmental (ventilation, air quality) is fundamental. But nor just any procedure will do to achieve this welfare. Here is where the user of the building plays a essential role, not only showing their needs and preferences, but also learning good practices and improving their behaviour when using the energy systems, domestic appliances and other devices of their houses. The information that now we collect from the buildings, valorized with the Big Data and Artificial Intelligence techniques, and made available to the user, will allow the user to know how the building behaves, how much CO2 emits and what it costs to achieve welfare. Put in full context, the user could improve the way we operate and live in their houses, promoting the efficient use of the energy systems that are under their control. CARTIF projects such as SocialRES and LocalRES tries to involve the citizens through the energy transition.
The combination of all these technologies, capable of transforming our buildings in ones more intelligent and proactive, and our users into trained and informed interveners, will make our building stock more efficient and sustainable.
All of the above is focused in reaching that our buildings, mainly the already existent, could behaviour in a more efficient way, and that they can thereby contribute to reducing energy use.
But, what happens if despite of our effort we are not able to reduce the CO2 emissions and other green house gases?
The reality as od today is that the global temperature of the planet continues increasing and the expected climatic pact still seems far from being achieved. As a consequence, we have not only to focus our investigation efforts, as we have been doing in CARTIF, in which our buildings consume less energy, and thus less CO2 and other green house gases is emitted for their production, but in new architectural designs capables of coping with extreme climatic conditions, that is, hotter summers, colder winters, more abundant precipitations… The future houses should therefore be well insulated, being self-sufficient in generation-consume of energy, being capable of manage and drain more water, and including green solutions. We cannot ignore this challenge in the not too distant future.
