Investigating alternative development strategies for sport arenas based on active and passive systems

Raising energy consumption observed in sport events for the last decades leads the organizing associations to developing adequate countermeasures. While the enhancement of active systems (installed on or integrated in buildings) had been already boosted to increase their efficiency in producing renewable energy, passive strategies still present room for development. The hereby study aims at providing useful information which can orient decision-makers towards wiser choices through the comparison of two alternative configurations, respectively based on active and passive strategies. A building-integrated photovoltaic (BiPV) plant and a cool surface treatment to increase the envelope solar reflectance were investigated in the Dacia Arena football stadium (Italy). Economic and environmental analyses were carried out in order to identify limits and potentials. The variables considered in the analyses included the installing costs, costs for the replacement, earnings due to energy production, profits from Emission Trading System for carbon credits, and savings from reduced energy consumption (if compared to initial configuration). Results demonstrated that highly-reflective coating guarantees a lower impact than BiPV plant in terms of economics, and permits paying back installing costs in a shorter time interval. When it comes to the environmental analyses, the amount of compensated emissions equals around 100 kgCO2-eq/m2 for the passive scenario and 1,500 kgCO2-eq/m2 for the active scenario.