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Net-Zero and Positive Energy
Communities
This book presents a methodology for the design, construction, monitoring,

optimization, and post-occupancy evaluation of net-zero and positive-energy
communities based on the experiences gained in the EU Horizon 2020 ZERO-
PLUS project. It describes the steps, tools, and methods developed during the
project, providing practical information for the energy and construction sector that
will be of interest to students, engineers, architects, developers, and professionals
working around high-performance architecture and sustainable communities.
Through the ZERO-PLUS project, a consortium of 32 partners from eight
countries, including academic institutions, technology providers, architects,
and construction companies, designed four communities covering completely
different geo-climatic regions, construction practices, and cultural backgrounds in
Cyprus, Italy, France, and the UK. The communities were designed, optimized,
constructed, monitored, handed over to tenants, post-occupancy evaluated, and
troubleshooted through a system of continuous collaboration and data acquisition.
This book presents these case studies and shows how the project targets of reducing
electricity consumption below 20 kWh/m2/y, increasing electricity production
from Renewable Energy Systems to over 50 kWh/m2/y, and at cheaper costs when
compared to current zero-energy buildings were reached and surpassed. These cases
demonstrate that a holistic and interactive approach to design and construction can
bring communities to a high standard of sustainability.
The key features of the book include:
• Practical guidance drawn from the interdisciplinary, international, and remote

cooperation between experts from academia and industry across the construction
sector.
• A survey of the state-of-the-art on net-zero and positive-energy communities,
including the experience and the lessons learned from previous projects and
from the ZERO-PLUS project.
• Descriptions of novel emerging renewable energy technologies, integrated
into real case study communities to achieve the energy generation target of the
communities.
• A comprehensive set of approaches, tools, guidelines, best practices, challenges,
and lessons learned from the five-year ZERO-PLUS project and the completion
of four residential case studies to inform the reader of how to achieve affordable
net-zero energy communities.
• Four typologies of residential communities located in different climatic
conditions are presented, touching on the critical aspects of the design,
construction, monitoring, and occupancy phase.
• A discussion of future trends for developing communities that are more livable,
accessible, and sustainable and which can comply with new energy policies in a
way that is affordable for the owners and residents.
Shabtai Isaac is Senior Lecturer in Project Management at Ben Gurion University

of the Negev, Israel.
Isaac Meir is Architect, Town Planner, Archaeologist, and Professor at Ben Gurion
University of the Negev, Israel.
Gloria Pignatta is Scientia Lecturer and City Futures Research Centre (CFRC)
Fellow (2021–2024) in the School of Built Environment (BE), Faculty of Arts,
Design, and Architecture (ADA), University of New South Wales, Australia.
Net-Zero and Positive Energy
Communities
Best Practice Guidance Based on the
ZERO-PLUS Project Experience
Edited by Shabtai Isaac, Isaac Meir,

and Gloria Pignatta
Cover images: Shabtai Isaac, Isaac Meir, and Gloria Pignatta
First published 2024
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2024 selection and editorial matter, Shabtai Isaac, Isaac Meir, and Gloria
Pignatta; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Shabtai Isaac, Isaac Meir, and Gloria Pignatta to be identified as
the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-21185-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-20846-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-26717-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003267171
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Foreword vii
SHABTAI ISAAC, ISAAC MEIR, AND GLORIA PIGNATTA
1 Introduction to net-zero and positive-energy communities 1

KHAN RAHMAT ULLAH AND MATTHEOS SANTAMOURIS
2 Background: the current energy community implementation

state in the EU 19
ANNA LAURA PISELLO, CRISTINA PISELLI, AND BENEDETTA PIOPPI
3 Methodology: the ZERO-PLUS approach 33

MORNA ISAAC AND SHABTAI ISAAC
4 Part 1: UK case study 47

RAJAT GUPTA, MATT GREGG, AND OWEN DAGGETT
Part 2: Energy modeling of positive-energy dwellings 64

RAJAT GUPTA AND MATT GREGG
5 Part 1: Italian case study 72

GLORIA PIGNATTA
Part 2: Community-level strategies for microclimate

mitigation and energy efficiency improvement 89
CRISTINA PISELLI, SILVIA CAVAGNOLI, ANNA LAURA PISELLO,
CLAUDIA FABIANI, AND FRANCO COTANA
6 Part 1: Cypriot case study 102

SALVATORE CARLUCCI, IOANNA KYPRIANOU, AND PANAYIOTIS
PAPADOPOULOS
vi Contents
Part 2: Production and installation planning 119

WEN PAN AND SHABTAI ISAAC
7 Part 1: French case study 130

SHABTAI ISAAC
Part 2: Project and design management – best practices

and tools 135
SHABTAI ISAAC
8 Part 1: Concentrating solar energy – the FAE system 144

FABIO MARIA MONTAGNINO
Part 2: Bot-based building design 151

BROOKE SPREEN AND SVEN KOEHLER
Part 3: Solar air-conditioning – the Freescoo system 160

PIETRO FINOCCHIARO
9 Monitoring and evaluation of the performance

of positive-energy communities 167
DIONYSIA KOLOKOTSA, ANGELIKI MAVRIGIANNAKI, AND
KONSTANTINOS GOMPAKIS
10 Post-occupancy evaluation: the missing link 187

ISAAC MEIR
Conclusions, or a more critical rethinking of the project 204

ISAAC MEIR, SHABTAI ISAAC, AND GLORIA PIGNATTA
Index 207
Foreword
Climate is changing, with the increased frequency of extreme weather events, and
the environment is facing depletion of its resources and ongoing harm. A long and
animated argument on the anthropogenic contribution in such processes seems to
have finally been settled, with the vast majority of the scientific community agree-
ing that we, humans, play a major – if not the major – role. Our reliance on energy
and excessive consumption, the belief in continuous and endless growth, and the
misconception (the illusion) that the environment can withstand it all have brought
us to a critical state and very sad and dire straits.
Within this context, buildings are a significant contributor and one of the major
environmental degradation drivers. Buildings account for about 40% of the energy
consumed in OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)
countries, including the operational energy (OE) for heating, cooling, ventilation,
lighting, and operation of all building-related systems (e.g., elevators, escalators,
pumps, fans, electric appliances). However, we keep forgetting that for buildings
to be built, natural resources have to be mined and processed, building materials
and elements have to be produced and transported, buildings have to be erected,
and then, at the end of their life, demolished. Adding the energy needed for all this,
the embodied energy (EE), easily brings the overall building budget in the energy
consumed to some 50% of the overall energy use.
Thus, we may say with a great degree of certainty and accuracy that buildings
are responsible for at least half of our impact on the environment. What can be
done about this, then?
The concept of nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEBs) has been out there for
several years, and several successful projects have been developed. Many countries
have established protocols, created standards, and made laws and regulations to
promote the adoption of nZEBs as the common paradigm and even reach the goal
of true zero-energy buildings (ZEBs), moving from the “nearly zero-energy” level
to an actual “zero-energy” level.
This, though, seems not to be enough. Can buildings go beyond being just
energy conservers and become energy surplus producers, generating more energy
than they consume? This may be necessary, as mere energy conservation seems to
be insufficient.
Here comes in the current ZERO-PLUS energy project, whose aim was to create
an all-inclusive package for designing and building energy-efficient buildings that
viii Foreword
go beyond the concept of nZEBs. The package includes design features that con-
serve both energy and resources (i.e., in terms of OE and EE) as well as integrates
renewable energy systems based on renewable energy sources (RES) in buildings
for electricity production. These could be easily modeled, but the real challenge is
to actually build them as such. So the ZERO-PLUS project team, made up of 32
institutions and companies from eight countries, took upon itself to also build four
demonstration case study settlements in four geo-climatically and socio-economically
different locations, in Cyprus (CY), France (FR), Italy (IT), and the UK (UK).
Taking the process and its targets one more step forward, the ZERO-PLUS team
proposed to optimize the four case studies through energy and microclimate simu-
lations and monitor their performance post-construction and pre-occupancy. This
is to allow for any necessary adjustments and adaptations to be made. Finally, the
project team proposed to conduct a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) to assess
whether the building user/tenant is able to take full advantage of the energy-
efficient systems and RES incorporated into the design. The goal was to promote
comfort, well-being, energy conservation, and potentially a sustainable develop-
ment alternative through the building–user nexus.
As more specific targets, the project consortium aimed at achieving building
energy consumption of less than 20 kWh/m2/annum and energy production from
RES of more than 50 kWh/m2/annum at the settlement level, at a cost of at least 16%
cheaper than existing ZEBs. Furthermore, a carbon emission reduction target was
established for each case study (i.e., CY, ≥34 kgCO2/m2/annum; FR, ≥4.6 kgCO2/m2/
annum; IT, ≥ 23 kgCO2/m2/annum; and UK, ≥ 18 kgCO2/m2/annum).
The consortium brought together experts from various fields, including building
design and construction, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning), and
RES systems design and production, automation and telecommunications, as well
as monitoring and POE, to reach these ambitious goals. Local regulators ensured
compliance with national standards, and strict privacy watchdogs closely moni-
tored every step of the process to guarantee full compliance with regulations pro-
tecting personal data.
Despite facing typical and unexpected challenges, including construction pro-
jects contingencies and COVID-19-related shutdowns and restrictions, the con-
sortium successfully moved from ZEBs to zero-plus-energy communities and
exceeded its goals.
The ZERO-PLUS project is not just another research project but a step toward
a more sustainable future and the only reasonable way forward. We have demon-
strated that it is possible and feasible to create net-zero and positive-energy com-
munities if all related institutions, service and product providers, and stakeholders
put their combined efforts into it.
This book provides a comprehensive description and critical analysis of the
ZERO-PLUS project and its modules, from beginning to end, from inception to
use, discussing what has been done, where we went wrong, how we navigated
straits, where we could have done better, but first and foremost, what a more appro-
priate design construction and commissioning process should look like if we are to
reach a more sustainable development of communities. Not least, this book shows
Foreword ix
what a whole, complete design and construction process should look like, including
a circular process of studying, assessing, analyzing, and evaluating time and again
the design and its details, the building systems and their usability, the building–user
nexus, and their productive interaction. Without such a complete and whole pro-
cess, well-being-promoting, energy-positive, healthy buildings cannot be achieved.
Following is a brief overview of the structure of the book. The first section of
the book, which contains three chapters, provides a broad introduction to the topic
of net-zero and positive-energy communities and to the proposed methodology
for realizing such communities. Chapter 1 introduces net-zero and positive-energy
communities by reviewing existing precedents and highlighting existing prob-
lems and challenges. Chapter 2 defines and analyzes in detail energy communities
according to the European regulatory and policy framework. Chapter 3 introduces
the ZERO-PLUS approach for the design and construction of new residential net-
zero energy communities.
The second section of the book, containing four chapters, shares the experience
gained from the design and construction of four demonstration projects according
to the approach and guidelines developed within ZERO-PLUS. Each chapter on a
specific case study also contains a second part that focuses on a particular aspect of
the project closely related to this case study. Chapter 4 describes the UK case study
(Part 1) and presents the modeling, simulation, and optimization methods used
from the design through to evaluation of zero-energy dwellings (Part 2). Chapter 5
describes the Italian case study (Part 1) and presents community-level strategies
for microclimate mitigation and energy efficiency improvement (Part 2). Chap-
ter 6 describes the Cypriot case study (Part 1) and presents a collaborative way of
planning and managing the design, production, and on-site assembly processes for
the energy-related technologies in NZE communities (Part 2). Chapter 7 describes
the French case study (Part 1) and presents a collaborative project management
approach that facilitates the creation of NZE communities and the tools and meth-
ods that were developed to support the approach.
The third and final section of the book presents solutions that were developed
within the ZERO-PLUS project, including technologies, tools, and methods. Chap-
ter 8 presents some of the innovative energy technologies that were developed and
implemented in the project: concentrating solar energy (Part 1), rooftop energy
generation technologies (Part 2), and solar air-conditioning (Part 3). Chapter 9
presents the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework of the net-zero and positive-
energy communities. Chapter 10 presents a post-occupancy evaluation platform for
the in-depth study and analysis of projects upon occupation.
The ZERO-PLUS project has received funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 678407.
We thank Mattheos Santamouris for putting together the project team and managing
its first steps. We thank Margarita-Niki Assimakopoulos for successfully carrying
on the coordination of the project. Finally, we thank all the partners for collegiality,
creativity, hard work, and bringing the project to a successful conclusion.
1 Introduction to net-zero and
positive-energy communities
Khan Rahmat Ullah and Mattheos Santamouris
1 Introduction
The adverse environmental impacts and limited quantities of fossil fuels are not
the only causes to explore energy alternatives. The rising energy consumption rate
along with the energy poverty in the building sector are responsible for health
problems and inadequate quality of life for low-income households (Pignatta
et al., 2017). The fast advancement of built environment sectors around the globe
is responsible for the use of the largest portion of global energy (Kumar & Cao,
2021). The major three sectors of energy consumption are industry, transportation,
and buildings – residential, commercial, and others – where the building sector
consumes around 40% of the world’s total energy that is responsible for 30% of
global greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions (Kumar & Cao, 2021). To generate this
huge amount of energy, the world massively relies on fossil fuels, where oil is still a
dominant resource. About 90% of global energy is produced from conventional fos-
sil fuels, while renewable resources are contributing 10% only (Elavarasan, 2019).
The large amount of energy demand in the building sector is not only increasing
global energy scarcity but also impacting climate change significantly (Roaf et al.,
2015). Therefore, focusing on the climate targets, lessening the energy consump-
tion and carbon emissions is essential, especially in the building sector. For this
reason, many countries have embraced energy and carbon targets. For example,
buildings are recognized by the vision of the Swiss 2000-Watt Society as a poten-
tial contributor toward improving energy efficiency and lowering GHG emissions
(Stulz et al., 2011). These challenges have been driving toward the net-zero energy
(NZE) concept in the building sector for the last few decades (Santamouris, 2016).
The concept of net-zero energy building (NZEB) refers to those buildings having
efficient and balanced architectural design and energy systems supplied by active
and passive renewable technologies (Torcellini et al., 2006). It also balances energy
generation and consumption, including the minimization of energy demand and
energy costs, along with net-zero GHGs emission (Wells et al., 2018).
Though the concept of NZEB in the built environment sector has been attract-
ing researchers for the last couple of decades, the lack of global and extensive
frameworks to define the NZEB and its requirements, especially the performance
levels and the energy usage from the renewable energy resources, is still notable
DOI: 10.1201/9781003267171-1
2 Khan Rahmat Ullah and Mattheos Santamouris
(D’Agostino, 2015). This uncertainty has effects on building design, considering

all the associated factors, such as energy generation and consumption, cost, ther-
mal comfort, environmental impact, indoor air quality, etc. (Athienitis & O’Brien,
2015). This wide range of interpretations, along with the technological challenges
regarding the operation and maintenance of technical tools, creates a barrier toward
achieving the NZE purposes at the building levels that leads to an additional strat-
egy, for example, at the community scale.
1.1 Definition of net-zero and positive-energy settlements
Energy performance and efficiency, power capacity, system reliability, and econ-
omy are the key factors in the consideration of the NZE concept, from the building
to community levels (Goldthau, 2014). While NZEB is applied to focus on the NZE
concept for the individual building, the net-zero energy settlement (NZES) consists
of a community having several buildings that follow the trend of the NZE concept
throughout the year. The term NZE refers to the energy demand of a community,
which is equal to the on-site energy generated within the community throughout
the year. According to the US Department of Energy, “a net zero energy commu-
nity is an energy-efficient community where, on a source energy basis, the actual
annual delivered energy is less than or equal to the on-site renewable exported
energy” (He et al., 2016). According to Carlisle et al. (2009), the net-zero energy
settlement (NZES) is to be considered in the following four perspectives:
1. The central energy system should consist of renewable energy sources and will
accommodate the energy for the whole community.
2. The percentage of energy loss should be kept in mind to deliver the energy.
3. The financial aspects of the community should be considered.
4. The environmental impacts, including GHG emissions, are to be considered.
While the NZES concept concerns equalizing energy demand and energy sup-
ply throughout the year, the positive-energy community yields more renewable
energy than its demand, along with providing appropriate comfort levels, reduc-
ing carbon emissions, and increasing the overall performance of energy systems.
More specifically, it has been believed as a step forward toward NZES (Kumar &
Cao, 2021).
1.2 ransition of NZE concept from an individual building

T
to community level
While the importance of future energy systems in the building sector is obvious,
it is almost impossible to analyze and consolidate the energy dynamics of build-
ings perfectly if we consider individual and isolated single-building energy sys-
tems (Kumar & Cao, 2021). Several studies point out the benefits of expanding the
boundaries of energy analysis from building scale to a collective approach on the
community level, even sometimes widening to district scale (Staller et al., 2016).
Introduction to net-zero and positive-energy communities 3
Integrated energy planning has become widespread and inevitable for the urban
environment. Various synergies, as well as amenities, can be identified during the
optimization of building energy performance while we consider it on a larger scale.
The community-scale initiative can provide enhanced energy security and energy
independence (Karunathilake et al., 2019). There are several advantages of NZES
over NZEB, as follows:
• It offers the sharing of needs, costs, and resources among the buildings within
the community that is beneficial and cost-effective (Isaac et al., 2020).
• The mismatch between energy generation and demand generally occurs at the
building levels, where the aggregated building approach within the community
can ensure more balanced management of it (Dai et al., 2015). Oversizing of the
whole system can be avoided by assessing the total energy demand and sharing
(Amaral et al., 2018).
• The centralized energy system enables the management of the various energy
resources locally, which offers the flexibility to balance supply and demand with
the help of an energy storage system that can also allow new consumers/end
users, like electric mobility. Since the process of generation and distribution of
energy runs in parallel, therefore, the losses (due to distribution of energy and
the surplus energy) can be minimized significantly in NZES compared to the
NZEB (Kurnitski et al., 2013).
• While the retrofitting of the energy technologies within the existing building
stock creates challenges, the centralized energy system at the community level
allows more flexibility to serve the net-zero energy purposes (Marique & Reiter,
2014).
• The net-zero energy target is more feasible for low-rise residential buildings
than high-rise buildings, where energy generated at the community level can
efficiently handle such types of big demands (Fong & Lee, 2012).
• A microgrid at the community level can supply excess energy to the national
energy grid, allowing additional earnings for the system. Also, when the loads
cannot be handled by renewables, the community can meet the additional energy
demand from the local grid. This approach, which is not possible at the build-
ing level, does not fully serve the net-zero energy purpose but nearly net-zero
energy purpose only (Marique & Reiter, 2014).
2 Typologies of NZES
The ways of serving NZE purpose on the community level consist of various ele-
ments and approaches. It is the approach not only to generate the required energy
from renewables but also to reduce the energy demands by improving the microcli-
mate and incorporating the passive elements within the buildings of the settlement.
The methods to achieve the NZE purpose on the community level refer to:
• The mitigation of the outdoor heat sources for the improvement of microclimate
(Santamouris et al., 2019; Santamouris et al., 2017).
Figure 1.1 The various components of an NZES.

Source: Ullah et al. (2021).
• The adaptation of the buildings to improve indoor thermal comfort (Taveres-

Cachat et al., 2019).
• The installation of renewables to generate the required energy for the commu-
nity (Taveres-Cachat et al., 2019).
The microclimate mitigation strategy enables mitigating the outdoor heat

sources, thus allowing to reduce the cooling energy consumption within the com-
munity. The widely used technologies for this mitigation approach are urban green-
ery, the use of cool materials (Akbari et al., 2001; Pisello et al., 2015), water-based
evaporative systems, etc. (Wu & Zhang, 2019). Besides, the adaptation of build-
ings refers to the sustainable design and techniques (e.g., incorporation of building
envelope and insulation with state-of-the-art materials, improved ventilation, effi-
cient lighting, thermal storage systems, building geometry, natural lighting, etc.)
(Oh et al., 2017) that facilitate the improvement of the indoor environment of the
buildings, including minimizing heat losses in winter and maximizing heat losses
in summer, and renewable energy technologies play the key roles to generate the
required electrical and thermal energy for the settlement (Taveres-Cachat et al.,
2019). Besides, a smart monitoring and control system enhances the usage of on-
site produced energy from renewable sources, lessens the energy curtailment, and
prevents the oversizing for both the energy generation and energy storage tools and
devices, which intends to reduce the investment and the operation and maintenance
costs (Sokolnikova et al., 2020).
3 Existing application and outcomes

There are several research efforts done regarding NZE settlements around the
globe. While most of the studies deal with software simulation, some real field
applications practically confirm the viability of the technologies employed for

NZES. The current applications of these technologies, along with their outcomes,
are described in the next three sub-sections.
3.1 he strategies for mitigation of outdoor heat sources used in net-zero

T
energy settlements
The mitigation strategies are usually applied to the outdoor heat sources of the
settlements to reduce the ambient temperature of the environment, which leads to
lessening the energy demand within the community. For serving the NZE purpose,
vegetation strategy is primarily considered to mitigate the outdoor heat sources.
For example, in the practically implemented NZES, namely, “UC Davis West Vil-
lage,” various native trees, shrubs, grasses, and other native plants were planted
to reduce the temperature of the environment (Wheeler & Segar, 2013; Dakin &
Hoeschele, 2010). However, the studies did not explicitly determine the outcome
of these mitigation strategies. In another case study of the NZES in Rimini, Italy,
landscaping vegetation was based on deciduous trees and hedges, which enabled to
reduce the ambient temperature up to 2℃, which allowed to reduce the energy con-
sumption by about 4–5% of annual energy demand (Castaldo et al., 2018; Piselli
et al., 2020). For the case study of Pieria, Greece, various plants, including bou-
gainvillea, shrubs, ground covers, vines, and turf, were considered for the vegeta-
tion. As a result, almost 76% of polluting emissions could be reduced (Ascione
et al., 2017).
Beside the vegetation, there are some other mitigation strategies followed to
achieve the NZE goals at community level. Natural, cool gravels were considered
for pavements for the settlement of Rimini, Italy. The study also recommended
using highly reflective asphalt for the roads. These measures resisted the ambient
heat to sink within the ground (Castaldo et al., 2018; Piselli et al., 2020). The highly
reflective asphalt used on road albedo was also considered in the study of nearly
zero-energy district in Rome, Italy. The result showed that 8% energy demand was
reduced by adopting these mitigation strategies within the district (Boccalatte et al.,
2020).
3.2 The adaptation of the buildings used for net-zero energy settlements
The adaptation of the building refers to the use of several measures, like highly
reflective materials on external walls and roof, windows with advance materials
and technologies, high-quality insulation and ventilation systems, etc. The build-
ing envelope is a crucial factor that controls the indoor conditions independent of
transient open-air conditions of the buildings. It segregates the outdoor and indoor
conditions of the buildings by incorporating some advanced materials and tools on
the walls, rooftop, and fenestration of the buildings (Nalcaci & Nalcaci, 2020). For
example, as one of the real-life applications of these measures, UC Davis West Vil-
lage used batt and blown insulation for the wall and the roof, respectively, where a
radiant barrier was used as roof sheathing. They also incorporated highly reflective
glazing windows and NightBreeze fresh air mechanical ventilation system, which
reduced the thermal energy demand to about 65%, 58%, and 50% for single-family
houses, multi-family houses, and common areas, respectively (Wheeler & Segar,
2013; Dakin & Hoeschele, 2010). On the other hand, for the case study of Rimini,
Italy, extruded polystyrene was used as insulation, where highly reflective tiles
were considered for roof and external walls, and the windows were made of double-
glazing low-e materials with PVC frames along with a mechanical ventilation sys-
tem. The result showed that up to 10% of the energy demand could be reduced for
HVAC (Castaldo et al., 2018; Piselli et al., 2020). This study was further expanded
by Cardinali et al. (2020), who showed that about 22% of energy could be saved,
along with 5% of the CO2 emissions reduction on community scale. Ascione et al.
(2017) designed the roofs and terrace to be covered with arbor or wattle, whereas
the terrace would be paved with highly reflective materials. Indoor shedding would
be provided by indoor blinds, lattices, and curtains, and the windows would be
made from double clear glass, argon-filled cavity, and wooden frames. They sug-
gested natural materials (stone, brick, and wood) and light colors to be used in the
opaque envelope of the buildings. These measures reduced the heating and cooling
energy demand by up to 70%.
In the case study of Plus Energy Settlement in Freiburg, Germany, a decen-
tralized mechanical ventilation system was implemented. Insulation was consid-
ered for external walls, roofs, and floors, where low-e triple-glazed windows were
implemented within the buildings. However, the study did not summarize the effect
of such adaptation strategies (Heinze & Voss, 2009). Another practically imple-
mented sustainable urban district is Vauban, located in Freiburg, Germany (Coates,
2013). The buildings of this community consisted of high level of insulation in
walls, triple-glazed windows with two heat-reflecting surfaces, mechanical venti-
lation, and some large linden trees planted beside the houses for summer shading.
However, this study also did not mention the outcomes of adopting such adaptation
strategies as well. Arena and Faakye (2015) considered cellulose as an insulating
material for ceiling, roof, wall, and slab. The windows incorporated in the buildings
were made of triple-plane, low-e chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) materials,
where energy recovery ventilation (ERV) type of ventilation was used. However,
the insulation strategy was not well addressed, and the sizing and positioning of
the windows were not adequate. For the case study of a mixed-use community in
Calgary, Canada, buildings with 30–35% south-facing glazing were considered,
where triple-glazed, low-e, argon-filled windows were used along with the insula-
tion of the exterior wall and gable roof. The study included the interior blind shad-
ing and concrete slab for the floor, along with a ventilation system that allowed a
higher rate of ventilation compared to the reference. However, the effects of using
the adaptation measures were not summarized (Hachem-Vermette et al., 2016).
Similar windows were also considered for the case study of the NZES in Granarolo
dell’Emilia, Italy (Mavrigiannaki, Pignatta, et al., 2021).
For the case study of Cairo, Egypt, external rendering was considered for the
insulation of roof and wall alongside the green rooftop as the adaptation strategies
of the buildings that reduced 18% of carbon emissions and 57.6% of annual energy
consumption. Nevertheless, the building envelope and the ventilation strategies

were not addressed (Fouad et al., 2020). Synnefa et al. (2017) considered extruded
polystyrene as insulating material of the building envelope. The same adaptation
approach was followed by Sougkakis et al. (2020), who considered three levels of
insulation for the roof, floor, and wall of the buildings, but effect on the building
energy performance is missing. Extruded polystyrene was also used for external
walls, along with the low-e, triple-glazing windows with unplasticized polyvinyl
chloride (uPVC) frame, which reduced more than 30% of energy consumption for
both dwellings in the case study of York, England (Gupta & Gregg, 2016, 2018).
For the nearly zero-energy district in Rome, Italy, high thermal resistance and clad-
ding were considered for the roof and walls, with double-glazing windows that
reduced about 70% of the thermal energy demand (Boccalatte et al., 2020).
3.3 he renewable energy technologies and the energy management

T
strategies used in net-zero energy settlements
The pace of the transition of energy from conventional fossil fuels to renew-
able energy resources has been increasing over the last couple of decades. The
relative part of renewable energy is significantly growing in the global electricity
demand, estimated at 29% in 2020, compared to 27% in 2019. Alongside govern-
ments, several regional communities and private sectors are also playing key roles
to contribute their part to such renewable energy growth. Energy production and
management are based on both centralized and decentralized systems throughout
the community, depending on the availability of the resources and the suitability of
the installation of energy production and management tools (Kumar & Cao, 2021).
There are several renewable energy sources as well as technological tools
employed to generate electrical and thermal energy along with the storage and
control system to meet the energy demand and therefore achieve the NZE goals
within the communities. Though solar energy is considered the most widely used
resource, some other renewable energy sources have also been used over the last
few decades to generate thermal and electrical energy for the NZES. For example,
in the UC Davis West Village, a centralized solar PV system with the capacity of
4 MW was installed. Besides, a community waste-based biogas fuel cell plant was
incorporated, where thermal energy of the community was provided by active solar
water heating and heat pump. However, the community has not achieved the NZE
goals yet, since the energy demand of the community is still higher than the on-site
energy generation of the community. This happens due to the lower capacity of
installed solar PV, where 5.4 MW was planned to be installed (Wheeler & Segar,
2013; Dakin & Hoeschele, 2010). At the NZE community of Rimini, Italy, rooftop-
installed PV and Windrail were considered to generate electrical power, and a
highly efficient HVAC system was proposed. The proposed model yielded about
70% energy reduction per building compared to the reference scenario (Castaldo
et al., 2018; Piselli et al., 2020). For the case study of the Mediterranean climate
in Pieria, Greece, PV was used to generate the electrical energy, where hot water
was produced by gas boilers. A hydronic air-conditioning system was proposed,
where space cooling was provided by electric air-conditioning units. These meas-
ures reduced the energy demand by up to 90%. However, the strategies to control
and balance the energy demand and supply were absent (Ascione et al., 2017).
In the Plus Energy Settlement of Freiburg, Germany, a 400 kWp PV was
installed on the building roofs along with a combined heat and power (CHP) plant
to supply electrical and thermal energy to the community with a positive-energy
balance and in an emission-free manner, but it had to depend on the local grid, for
lack of an energy storage system (Heinze & Voss, 2009). The sustainable urban
district of Vauban in Freiburg, Germany, has a similar problem, lacking an energy
storage system, but generation was higher than the demand (Coates, 2013). The
rooftop PV and solar hot water system along with a natural gas–powered CHP unit
were integrated within the building, enabling a 79% reduction in primary energy
along with 80% GHG emission reduction. The simulation on the Eco Village at
Ithaca, New York, incorporated PV and solar thermal collectors along with heat
pump and thermal storage system to serve the NZE needs of 40 residential build-
ings. The suggested solution package faced the oversizing problem of the energy
tools, since the energy consumption data collected from two occupied homes was
56% lower than the MJ8 software calculation, while the Passive House Planning
Package (PHPP) calculation provides a figure 34% higher than the recorded data
(Arena & Faakye, 2015). The mixed-use community of Calgary, Canada, was
designed to include building-integrated PV (BIPV) system, alongside a heat pump
and a chiller, providing heating and cooling, respectively. The installation of PV on
the roof failed to ensure the energy-plus status of the multi-storied buildings due
to the comparatively restricted space on the roof for installing the PV according to
the demand. As a result, the school and houses have a net positive impact on the
environment, while other buildings could not achieve it (Hachem-Vermette et al.,
2016). Wind turbines and PV were considered for the case study of NZES in Cairo,
Egypt (Fouad et al., 2020), where energy consumption could be reduced by about
57.6% along with the reduction of 390 tons of CO2 per year. These renewables
were further considered in the case study of the NZES in Granarolo dell’Emilia,
Italy (Mavrigiannaki, Gobakis, et al., 2021), where Windrail and PV were consid-
ered to be installed on the settlement level along some BIPV. This settlement is
an outcome of the ZERO-PLUS project of the EU Horizon 2020 program, where
the on-site energy generation was about 60 kWh/m2/year against the net-regulated
energy consumption of 1.6 kWh/m2/year, with a reduction of up to 33% of the cost.
The NZES designed by Synnefa et al. (Synnefa et al., 2017) consisted of a com-
pact linear Fresnel reflector, translucent BIPV glass component, compact solar
thermal driven HVAC system, thermal storage system connected to the solar field
and absorption chillers, Windrail module, and a microgrid to generate, control,
and supply the energy. The study met its target of yearly renewable energy gen-
eration and net-regulated energy use but failed to address the optimization of the
economic and technical perspective. The opposite phenomena were observed by
the study conducted on the nearly zero and positive-energy settlement in Alexan-
droupolis, Greece (Sougkakis et al., 2020), where PV, geothermal heat pump, and
battery made the settlement viable, considering the economy and technologies, but
energy monitoring and control system are missing. Almost similar technologies
were considered for the nearly zero energy community in South Korea (Suh &
Kim, 2019), where PV, solar thermal collector, and geothermal heat pump were
considered, but without energy storage systems. The study observed four different
cases of renewable energy resources, where the first two cases failed to reach the
NZE goals. The study of the nearly zero energy district in Rome, Italy, consisted of
BIPV installed on the roof and facades of the building, along with an electric heat
pump, where the performance of the PV module decreased for a massive coverage
of the facade and rooftop by the PV (Boccalatte et al., 2020).
The net-zero multi-energy community in Siberia, Russia, was simulated by
Sokolnikova et al. (2020), where PV, wind turbines, heat pump, energy control
and management strategy, along with the battery and thermal storage system
used, enabled achieving the NZE goals along with the reduction of CO2 emis-
sions of about 3,000 tons within the community. Similar renewable energy tech-
nologies were considered in the positive-energy community of Finland (Rehman
et al., 2019). Besides the PV and wind turbine, the study included a central solar
district heating system consisting of a solar thermal collector, heat pumps, and
a borehole thermal energy storage system. In addition, the study included elec-
tric vehicles to be fed from the on-site energy generated within the community.
The result showed that the system reduced the electrical energy imported from
the grid by up to 2 kWh/m2/year while an energy storage system was considered.
Another suggestion has been brought by Garmsiri et al. (2016) regarding the inte-
gration of vehicles fed by on-site energy generated within the community. They
examined the feasibility of an NZES by utilizing captured waste hydrogen from
chlor-alkali plants, along with building-integrated PV/thermal system. The result
showed that about 1,200 kg of hydrogen can be produced that would be processed
via Honda FCX fuel cells to feed the 750 electric vehicles successfully. However,
results showed that the NZE purpose would be served if the vehicles are considered
as loads besides the building energy demand within the community. A combined
PV/T system was considered for the case of York, England (Gupta & Gregg, 2016,
2018). Besides building-integrated PV and modular wind turbines considered for
electrical energy generation, a gas boiler district heating system was incorporated
on the settlement level. The study suggested that more than 30% of energy can be
saved within the existing dwellings, and more than 35% of CO2 emissions could
be reduced. However, though the settlements significantly improved the amount
of on-site energy generation by renewables, the NZE goals are yet to be achieved.
Jordan et al. (2016) considered solar PV and battery (as energy storage) only to
serve the NZE purpose in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. The study showed that energy
balance was merely achievable on sunny days, whereas on cloudy days, the com-
munity required to consume energy from the local grid. The study was limited to
be used for low-energy consumption community only.
There are some studies that do not consider the electrical and thermal per-
spective simultaneously toward achieving NZE goals at the community level.
For example, a central biogas plant and a gas turbine were used in the ADM1
model to be used for the NZES in Ontario, Canada (Shareefdeen et al., 2015).
The design mainly focused on the thermal energy supply of the community, where
about 23% CO2 emissions can be reduced, compared to the conventional natural
gas production system. However, though the study included a gas turbine, it did
not include any discussion on or specification of the turbine and its output power.
Burch et al. (2012) considered a solar PV/T system and borehole field heat stor-
age system for energy generation and storage devices, where he emphasized the
performance of thermal energy supply liquid desiccants (LD) method that ensured
significant reduction of piping diameter, therefore also reduction of the cost for
heating and cooling purpose. However, the study discussed only the thermal per-
spective, but no design of electrical components was considered.
The technologies employed for NZE purpose on the community level are listed
in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1 The technologies employed and their significance toward achieving NZE goals
on the community level
List of technologies Outcomes
Mitigation • Vegetation (trees, shrubs, • Reduction of the ambient

grasses, plants, hedges, etc.) temperature, energy demand, and
• Cool and reflective materials polluting emissions up to 2℃,
for roads and pavements 8%, and 76%, respectively.
(natural cool gravels, highly
reflective asphalt, etc.)
Adaptation • Low-e multi-glazing windows • Up to 70% of heating and cooling
• High-insulating and reflecting energy demand reduction.
materials for wall, roof, • Significant minimization of
and floor (e.g., extruded annual GHG emissions (up to
polystyrene, batt and blown 18%) and annual energy demand.
insulation, highly reflective
tiles, arbor or wattle, stone,
brick and wood, etc.)
• Efficient ventilation systems
(mechanical ventilation, ERV
ventilation, HVAC systems,
etc.)
• Shading (by trees, indoor
blinds, lattices, curtains, etc.)
Renewables • PV and solar thermal collector • Up to 80% of GHG emissions
• WindRail and wind turbine reduced thanks to renewable
• CHP system energy resources.
• Biogas plant, geothermal • Energy cost can be reduced up to
energy, and gas turbine 33%.
• Community waste (hydrogen • Vehicles can feasibly be added to
energy utilized by fuel cells) the NZE system.
• Heat pump • Energy storage system enhances
• Battery and thermal storage the energy performance of the
systems system.
Energy • Microgrid system • Microgrid controls the electrical
management • Energy control strategy energy generation and supply.
and control • Home energy management
system system increases the self-
consumption of renewable energy
sources.
4 Conclusion and scope of further studies

Evidence reveals that most of the NZE settlements mainly involve on-site energy
generation rather than the measures to reduce the energy consumption of the set-
tlements. Also, the barriers toward achieving NZE goals consist of several factors
(e.g., inadequate and inappropriate energy generation tools and energy storage sys-
tem, lack of control system, microgrid, etc.). However, various adaptation tech-
niques are capable to lessen significantly the building energy demand. Nonetheless,
the adaptation tools are not thoroughly considered yet, and there are also some new
technologies to be introduced for the adaptation of buildings. Moreover, mitigation
strategies enable lowering the ambient temperature along with curbing GHG emis-
sions to the environment, as well as minimizing the energy demand of the com-
munity. Though this approach is widely used in several individual cases, it is time
to incorporate it extensively to mitigate the outdoor heat sources of the NZES. The
challenges of existing NZE communities and corresponding recommendations are
made in the following sub-section.
4.1 resent challenges and scope of further studies for net-zero energy
P
communities
Though NZESs have been considered over the last few decades, there are still sev-
eral challenges and, therefore, scopes of further study and research for achieving
NZE goals at the community level. From the preceding discussion, we can sum-
marize the findings and the insights as follows:
• Mitigation strategies and adaptation of the buildings are two key elements to
achieve NZE goals on the community level. Those have been substantiated by
previous studies to minimize the ambient temperature (up to 3℃), leading to a
reduction of the energy demand of the community (Boccalatte et al., 2020). But
these measures have not been thoroughly considered by NZE settlements which
have been realized. Therefore, comprehensive assimilation of the tools and
measures for mitigation and adaptation of the buildings is yet to be achieved.
• Vegetation, natural cool gravels (Castaldo et al., 2018; Piselli et al., 2020),
and highly reflective asphalt (Boccalatte et al., 2020) are considered as mitiga-
tion strategies which are limited in the extent to which they can be practically
implemented in NZE communities. Besides, the assessment of the effects of
incorporation of mitigation strategies are, sometimes, missing in the actual field
application (Wheeler & Segar, 2013; Dakin & Hoeschele, 2010).
• The measures and tools used for adaptation techniques in the buildings of some
settlements were not widely considered with state-of-the-art tools and technolo-
gies, though it would enhance the energy performance of the building (Arena &
Faakye, 2015; Fouad et al., 2020). Therefore, ample and high-performance tools
and measures are yet to be incorporated.
• Most of the settlements have considered solar energy as a renewable energy
source, while wind energy was second, along with geothermal energy, biogas
plant, etc., which are not enough in quantities.
• For the enhancement of the self-consumption of energy (Sokolnikova et al., 2020)

(Mavrigiannaki, Pignatta, et al., 2021) and the improvement of handling capacity
of critical loads and balancing the good distribution of energy demand (Synnefa
et al., 2017; Jordan et al., 2016), it is essential to incorporate energy control and
management systems. But they are not extensively included in NZES yet, as few
settlements considered them, and those are mostly limited to software simulations.
• The utilization of community waste would become a good source of energy –
for example, biogas fuel cell plant fed by agricultural and dining hall food waste
(Wheeler & Segar, 2013; Dakin & Hoeschele, 2010) and the utilization of waste
hydrogen from chlor-alkali plants (Garmsiri et al., 2016, etc.). Nevertheless,
the use of community waste in NZE settlements is still not appropriately imple-
mented or even considered.
• Though the environmental impacts along with the energy demand and supply
are discussed, a comprehensive cost analysis for the NZE settlements consid-
ering the per unit energy costs and payback period of the systems is yet to be
conducted.
• There are limited appropriate methodologies and tools that include all the
parameters and factors (e.g., site coverage or shape factor, floor area, floor and
ground space indexes, etc.) for researchers as well as practitioners. Even soft-
ware tools sometimes neglect the geometric parameters and assume the default
values during simulations that influence the energy performance of the renew-
able technologies within the community (Ullah et al., 2021).
• The larger scale and area of the community bring more complexity in designing
the system, guaranteeing functional stakeholders’ interactions (Mavrigiannaki,
Pignatta, et al., 2021), and in assessing the performance of the system.
Therefore, we can conclude that, considering on-site energy generation, there are
already some successfully implemented NZES in the world, but there are still some
scopes and areas (illustrated in Figure 1.2) to be addressed so as to improve the
economic perspective, environmental friendliness, technical flexibility, and social
viability of NZES. The major current gap resides in exploring stakeholders’ moti-
vations as well as awareness of the NZE concept.
Therefore, to establish NZES, further areas can be explored, as follows:
1. Mitigation strategies. At present, a limited number of case studies considered

the mitigation strategies for outdoor heat sources to serve NZE goals within the
community, where vegetation is mainly considered. However, along with veg-
etation, water bodies (Santamouris et al., 2017), and cool materials for roads and
pavements (e.g., third-generation materials) (Santamouris et al., 2011), thermo-
chromic coatings (Garshasbi & Santamouris, 2019), electrochromic glass, white
marbles, super-cool materials (Santamouris & Yun, 2020), and photonic materi-
als (Feng et al., 2021), etc.) could be adopted to improve the thermal comfort of
the environment within the community.
2. Adaptation of the buildings. Till now, there has been an inadequate incor-
poration of the state-of-the-art passive elements within the buildings of the
Figure 1.2 Further measures and tools for future NZES.

Source: Ullah et al. (2021).
community. Therefore, an extensive adaptation of the buildings with high-

performance materials would be a promising option to reduce the energy
demand and improve the indoor air quality as well as control the indoor tem-
perature of the buildings. In this process, some new technologies (e.g., PCM in
walls (Stritih et al., 2018) and cool roof materials (Green et al., 2020)) could be
integrated in buildings.
3. Diversified use of renewables. Solar and wind energy are mainly considered
renewable energy sources in most of the case studies. Hence, there are some
other renewable energy resources and technologies (e.g., hydrogen energy
(Ullah et al., 2015), thermoelectric generator, hydro energy, tidal energy, etc.)
that would be good sources of energy to serve the net-zero purpose at the com-
munity level.
4. Energy management and control system design. There are very few efforts
done to design and implement comprehensive control systems. Hence, imple-
menting smart monitoring and control systems will enable to lessen the oversiz-
ing of the technical tools and the mismatch between the demand and generation
of energy within the community. Besides, the formation of a microgrid con-
nected to the conventional national grid and all the renewable energy tools
would enable the distribution of the energy along with balancing the energy
demand within the year, which is thoroughly not considered in NZE communi-
ties yet.
5. Usage of waste energy. Waste energy of the community can be harvested to
meet partial energy demand (e.g., hydrogen energy by the fuel cell and industrial/
domestic waste heat by thermoelectric generator), which is not widely devised

yet for NZES.
6. Life cycle assessment. A comprehensive life cycle assessment, including the
cost analysis and the payback period, along with the environmental impacts of
the centralized system, is essential for the viability of the community, which is
not often assessed in previous works.
7. Usage of updated software tools. Appropriate software selection brings the flex-
ibility to select the required design parameters according to the weather condition
and climatic zone, enabling to get the more accurate results to design NZES.
8. Awareness and motivation of the residents. The NZE concept is not well-
known to the community people. Therefore, social awareness regarding it and
its benefits can be achieved via surveys and physical communication.
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https://doi.org/10.3390/SU11030787
2 Background: the current energy
community implementation state
in the EU
Anna Laura Pisello, Cristina Piselli,
and Benedetta Pioppi
1 Introduction
The energy transition toward a decarbonized future offers the possibility of imple-
menting innovative and effective new policies toward faster economic and social
sustainable development (Amin, 2018). This path involves the digitalization of
the energy sector, the reduction of renewable energy costs, and the development
of new models of distributed energy generation. In particular, with the increasing
decentralization of energy generation, individuals and companies are able to play a
proactive role in the energy system, allowing the growth of new resource manage-
ment schemes and, consequently, business models. In this context, a new archetype
for the national and European energy system is arising: energy communities (ECs),
where citizens produce, consume, manage, and share renewable energy.
Energy communities have been introduced in the European regulatory frame-
work by the “Clean Energy for all Europeans Package” (European Commission,
2020a), which includes the European directives governing renewable energy
production and sharing that define the schemes of collective self-consumption
and energy community. The term “energy community” refers to a legal entity
constituted – in accordance with national law – openly and voluntarily. It is auton-
omous and controlled by shareholders or members located in proximity of the
renewable energy production plant that belongs to and is developed by the same
legal entity (Figure 2.1). The shareholders or members can be individuals, small-
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), or local authorities, including municipali-
ties, which constitute the EC in order to provide environmental, economic, and
social benefits rather than financial profit. Practically, the energy community can
be set up between users belonging to the same low-voltage network, namely, those
users that refer to the same medium/low-voltage (MV/LV) substation. Therefore,
it can combine various end uses characterized by different “energy use profiles,”
which are usually out of phase in time (e.g., office buildings, small manufacturing
companies, residential buildings, etc.), in order to benefit from the non-contempo-
raneity of energy needs. Collective self-consumption, instead, is a specific scheme
that can be established only between users belonging to the same condominium
who produce (store) and consume renewable energy (Frieden et al., 2019).
DOI: 10.1201/9781003267171-2
20 Anna Laura Pisello, Cristina Piselli, and Benedetta Pioppi
Figure 2.1 Example of energy community scheme with different building uses.
In the international panorama, the discussion is led by the group headed by

the IEA EBC Annex 83 “Positive Energy Districts” (Reda & Tuominen, 2020).
Indeed, ECs can be assimilated to positive energy districts (PEDs), since PEDs’
base principle is to create an area within the built urban context where renew-
able energy is generated more than required in an agile and flexible way, namely,
capable of responding to the variation of the dynamic energy market – not only
producing more energy than required on an annual static basis. PEDs should be
able to minimize the impact of fluctuations in demand and production, offering fur-
ther possibilities of synchronization of loads and self-consumption, even through
energy storage solutions and system flexibility optimization using advanced multi-
directional flow control mechanisms.
The final objective is always the same: to cope with the fact that in Europe build-
ings are responsible for approximately 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2
emissions (European Commission, 2020a). This condition requires a prompt action
from various points of view, and energy communities seem an effective solution in
terms of both urban carbon footprint reduction and resilience to fluctuating markets
and “unpredictable” environmental phenomena, as well as safe renewable sources
supply. From the economic point of view, ECs give rise to a double benefit. On the
one hand, they provide greater energy self-sufficiency for the country that adopts
them and, consequently, independence from foreign imports. On the other hand,
thanks to the self-production and internal sharing of energy, community members
save the charges on the bill and potentially recreate a sense of community among
“peers” with also socio-demographic benefits. Indeed, the integration of energy
communities into the energy system must be carried out efficiently from the eco-
nomic perspective, by taking into account the real savings for the energy system as
a whole, to ensure feasibility. Nevertheless, equally important is the potential social
benefit that derives from these new forms of aggregation (Gjorgievski et al., 2021).
The current energy community implementation state in the EU 21
Energy communities take on a strong social value because they enhance human
involvement and awareness on the control of energy process (consumption and
production of energy), guarantee inclusiveness, and have impact in the long term,
potentially triggering green individual behaviors and social practices.
Consequently, through ECs the energy transition creates roles for new actors:
innovation and social transformation through the involvement of citizens and the
reduction of energy poverty. Indeed, the European energy market is experiencing
not only the transformation from an energy system based on fossil and nuclear
energy to a system based on renewable, efficient, and sustainable energy but also
the transformation from a centralized market toward a granular, distributed, and
resilient market, with prosumer citizens, that is, active citizens in the energy system
(Amin, 2018).
This chapter starts from the analysis of the regulatory framework of the Euro-
pean Union to understand the feasibility and the current state of implementation
of energy communities in Europe. Thereafter, the lesson learned from the Horizon
2020 (H2020) ZERO-PLUS project (H2020 Project ZERO-PLUS, 2015) is dis-
cussed with specific reference to the experience in a laggard country in the imple-
mentation of energy communities, that is, Italy. Finally, the current progress in
this path is presented by analyzing the following projects that are going beyond
ZERO-PLUS.
2 European context
2.1 European regulatory framework
In the European regulatory framework, certain categories of community energy

initiatives are recognized as energy communities. They were introduced, as
aforementioned, with the “Clean Energy for all Europeans Package” (European
Commission, 2020a) in 2019. The energy community is intended as a means for
organizing collective energy actions based on models of governance and open
and democratic participation in order to provide benefits for its members and for
the local community (Roberts et al., 2019). In particular, two of the revised Euro-
pean directives define energy communities: the Directive 2018/2001/EU (revised
Renewable Energy Directive – RED II) (Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the Euro-
pean Parliament and of the Council on the Promotion of the Use of Energy from
Renewable Sources, 2018), which promotes energy from renewable sources and
renewable self-consumption, introduces “renewable energy communities” (REC),
while the Directive 2019/944/EU (Internal Electricity Market Directive – EMD II)
(Directive (EU) 2019/944 on Common Rules for the Internal Market for Electric-
ity, 2019), on common rules for the internal electricity market, introduces “citizens’
energy communities” (CEC).
In both cases, the regulatory framework describes energy communities as new
types of non-commercial legal entities that provide for open and voluntary par-
ticipation, without discrimination. They aggregate shareholders, who can be indi-
viduals, local entities, and small- and medium-sized enterprises, whose primary
economic activity cannot be the participation in the energy community. Although

they engage in an economic activity, energy communities have the main objective
to provide environmental, social, and economic benefits to the members of the
community and the territory where they are located, rather than to provide financial
profit (Rescoop, 2019). The main differences between CEC and REC are related to
geographical and energy characteristics (Caramizaru & Uihlein, 2020):
• RECs require that energy generation and self-consumption take place in close
proximity, while CECs do not.
• CECs operate specifically in the electricity sector and may also involve fossil
fuel generation, while RECs – as the name implies – encompass all forms of
renewable energy in the electricity and thermal energy sectors and aspire to be
energy-autonomous.
Therefore, the European Union recognizes and proposes a legislative framework

favorable to the development of energy communities, which are expected to pave
the way for a citizen-centric clean energy transition, while increasing public
acceptance of renewable energy and attracting private investments in clean energy
(European Commission, 2020b). For the first time, the collective participation of
citizens in the energy system is significantly promoted (Figure 2.2). Accordingly,
the implementation of the “Clean Energy Package” at a national level in each mem-
ber state is essential for the profitable development of energy communities toward
the energy transition, as well as adequate technical and operational support from
local administrations (Ren et al., 2015).
2.2 Virtuous cases in Europe
Energy community projects exist in various forms across Europe. Since the 1980s,
energy community initiatives have been developing, yet only recently, as previ-
ously mentioned, has the EU started developing a policy framework to define
energy communities in legal terms and to foster their operation. Nowadays, over
1,900 projects exist across the EU, involving over 1,250,000 citizens (Energy
Transition. The Global Energiewende, 2021). The most common are those involv-
ing renewable energy generation. Table 2.1 summarizes the indicative number of
active energy communities led by citizen groups in selected European countries
by 2020. This number is expected to continuously evolve. Indeed, the European
Commission apprises that, in the transition to cleaner and more sustainable energy
by 2030, energy communities may own up to 17% of wind power and 21% of solar
power (European Commission, 2016). Although they aim at being autonomous,
energy communities remain connected to the energy system – exceptions are
granted for isolated areas, such as islands or remote areas. As regards the organi-
zational models and legal forms, there is high heterogeneity. The most widespread
typology is the energy cooperative. This model was established with the introduc-
tion of renewable energy support schemes (indeed, they are particularly popu-
lar in countries where the latter are relatively advanced) and mainly favors ECs
Figure 2.2 The energy system fostered today vs. the energy system of yesterday.
members, according to the main purpose of energy communities (Caramizaru &

Uihlein, 2020).
In terms of diffusion, the largest number of energy communities firstly devel-
oped in European countries with a tradition of community-owned and social
enterprises, namely, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany, in ascending order
(H2020 Project COMETS, 2019) (Table 2.1). For example, the energy cooperative
Bioenergiedorf (which means “bioenergy village”), born in 2005 in Jühnde, Ger-
many (de Waal & Stremke, 2014), was the first village to be self-sufficient in terms
of thermal and electrical energy, capable of producing renewable energy from bio-
mass with the participation of consumers. Another example is the Schoonschip
residential district in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Stichting, 2020), where every
home is equipped with an intelligent heat pump energy system and renewable
energy production systems – photovoltaic panels and solar collectors – supported
by electric and thermal storage systems. Each house is connected to the internal
microgrid of the community, which has a single point of connection and exchange
with the central grid. The community microgrid is controlled via an intelligent
Table 2.1 Active energy communities in selected European countries
Country Number of energy community initiatives
Germany 1,750
Denmark 700
Netherlands 500
United Kingdom 431
Sweden 200
France 70
Belgium 34
Poland 34
Spain 33
Italy 12
Source: Caramizaru and Uihlein (2020).
platform capable of managing and optimizing local renewable energy exchange

and administrative activities. Luče Community is a village in a remote part of Slo-
venia (H2020 Project COMPILE, 2018), which represents a case of rural network
of building with different end uses served by multiple renewable energy produc-
tion systems, such as photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, biomass-based heat gen-
erators, and charging stations for electric vehicles. In this context, the presence
of a local community grid allows for optimizing the balance between supply and
demand of clean energy thanks to the flexibility associated with the various produc-
tion systems and end users, that is, prosumers, with diversified and asynchronous
energy needs. In the town of Monachil, Spain (Ecosystemic Transition Unit (ETU),
2020), the local residents are brought together to be part of the energy transition
through the production of their own renewable energy and the establishment of a
REC, while sharing surplus with other communities. A key challenge to set up a
successful energy community stressed in this project is the need to engage and raise
awareness about energy self-consumption on its inhabitants. To this aim, energy-
sharing groups and educational activities are carried out by the municipality to
communicate the benefits of the energy communities.
3 Beyond ZERO-PLUS
3.1 Lesson learned
The H2020 project ZERO-PLUS (H2020 Project ZERO-PLUS, 2015) provided an

approach for the design and construction of net-zero energy settlements (NZES) in
different European countries. Therefore, the proposed approach was implemented
and tested in selected case studies, including a small-scale settlement in Italy (Gra-
narolo dell’Emilia) (Cardinali et al., 2020; Castaldo et al., 2018; Mavrigiannaki
et al., 2021). These NZES were designed with a configuration typical of energy
communities, with expected renewable energy production and management sys-
tems shared among the buildings in the settlement. However, in the implementation
phase, different barriers were faced to the effective application of this approach.
Among the main ones, there was a big policy barrier on a legal basis related
to the implementation of community contracts in Italy. In detail, at that time, dif-
ferent consumers could not share energy contract. This non-negligible barrier
prevented the implementation of shared energy systems among the buildings of
the Italian case study settlement and, therefore, the proper implementation of the
ZERO-PLUS approach. Accordingly, this issue highlighted the need of shared and
acknowledged policies on energy communities at national and – most of all – EU
level. Moreover, dedicated regulatory models to be applied to these new subjects
should be agreed.
On the other hand, a key variable enabling the feasibility of energy communi-
ties is users’ understanding and acceptance of this novel approach to energy use.
Therefore, strategies aimed at mobilizing interest and trust among citizens must be
defined to foster a human-based energy transition. Results from the project showed
that this is a challenge to be faced (Piselli et al., 2021). In this view, the right mix
of incentives for all stakeholders (not only bottom-up but also top-down) should
be provided.
Finally, technical barriers emerged within the framework of the project. First,
the need to develop and select easy and acknowledged technologies. Indeed, inno-
vative renewable energy systems require environmental and/or other permissions
to be effectively installed in the settlement outdoors as shared systems. Further-
more, the phases of operation and maintenance of the shared systems involve addi-
tional issues related to privacy and intrusion that should be taken into account when
designing energy communities.
3.2 National regulatory framework in Italy
As regards policies, a key achievement related to the ZERO-PLUS project was the
development of a national regulatory framework for energy communities in Italy.
The policy barriers faced during the project, indeed, drove the local researchers
to push to a legislative adaptation of the Italian policies to those of early adopter
countries of this solution in Europe.
The Italian “Milleproroghe” Decree, that is, Legislative Decree of December 30,
2019, n. 162 (Decreto-Legge 30 dicembre 2019, n. 162 “Disposizioni urgenti in
materia di proroga di termini legislativi, di organizzazione delle pubbliche ammin-
istrazioni, nonché di innovazione tecnologica” (in Italian), 2019) – which was
pushed also by the Italian researchers who were involved in the ZERO-PLUS
project – officially published on February 29, 2020, and came into force on March 1,
2020, laid the foundations for the establishment of renewable energy communities
in Italy. Until then, the Italian legislation allowed producing and self-consuming
energy, but only in terms of 1:1, namely, with the producer as the only consumer
(Quaranta, 2020). For instance, if the owner of an apartment in a condominium
had installed a photovoltaic system on the roof, they would have been the only one
to be able to use the energy produced by this system, which, therefore, could not
have served, when exceeding, the other utilities nearby or even in the same con-
dominium. Similarly, the energy surplus of a photovoltaic system installed on the
roof of a company could have been fed into the network, but not used, for example,
to cover all or part of the energy needs of a neighboring company (Candelise &
Ruggieri, 2020). Therefore, despite numerous mechanisms aimed at encouraging
electric renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic, geothermal, wind power,
etc., which have led to an increase in renewable energy production up to cover-
ing approximately 14% of national production over the years 2000–2012 (GSE,
2019), this constraint has slowed the development of self-consumption potential.
This limit was overcome thanks to the “Milleproroghe” Decree and the conver-
sion law of February 28, 2020, n.8 (Legge 28 febbraio 2020, n. 8 “Conversione in
legge, con modificazioni, del decreto-legge 30 dicembre 2019, n. 162” (in Italian),
2020). Indeed, this regulation has started implementing the provisions of the Euro-
pean Directive 2018/2001/EU (Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parlia-
ment and of the Council on the Promotion of the Use of Energy from Renewable
Sources, 2018) by legally recognizing renewable energy sharing, according to the
two mechanisms aforementioned: collective self-consumption and energy commu-
nities. Thereafter, the most recent legislative decree of November 8, 2021, n. 199
(Decreto Legislativo 19 novembre 2021, n. 199 “Attuazione della direttiva (UE)
2018/2001 del Parlamento europeo e del Consiglio, dell’11 dicembre 2018, sulla
promozione dell’uso dell’energia da fonti rinnovabili” (in Italian), 2021), which
should be followed by the implementing decrees and regulations within six months
from its publication, definitively transposes the Directive 2018/2001/EU. The reg-
ulatory evolution in Italy is summarized in Figure 2.3.
More in detail, Article 42-bis of “Milleproroghe” Decree, coordinated with Law
8/2020, outlines the path toward distributed generation from renewable sources,
that is, methods and conditions for activating collective self-consumption and/or
creating energy communities, in terms of plants sizing, producer–consumer legal
model, provisions regarding the treatment of the energy produced, and tariff mech-
anisms. On the one hand, it specifies that the self-consumers of renewable energy
who act collectively (in collective self-consumption schemes) must be in the same
building or condominium. Moreover, subjects other than households can join only
if the aforementioned activities are not their main commercial or professional
activity. On the other hand, in renewable energy communities, the members can
be individuals, SMEs, and local authorities, including municipal administrations,
Figure 2.3 Timeline of regulatory evolution in Italy.

but likewise, participation in the energy community cannot constitute the main
commercial or industrial activity for the members who benefit from it. The law
underlines the concept of adherence to one of the two schemes on a voluntary
basis using any collective legal entity type and among users connected to the
same MV/LV substation. Also, it clarifies that the subjects participating in collec-
tive self-consumption or energy community initiatives produce energy for their
own consumption with plants powered by renewable sources with a total power
not exceeding 200 kW and newly installed – that is, entered into operation after
March 1, 2020, and within 60 days following the date of entry into force of the
provision implementing the Directive 2018/2001/EU. In this view, Article 36 of
Directive 2018/2001/EU fixes the deadline for the transposition of the same direc-
tive by the member states to the end of June 2021 (Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of
the European Parliament and of the Council on the Promotion of the Use of Energy
from Renewable Sources, 2018), with consequent commissioning of the involved
plants by August 2021. Moreover, Article 42-bis defines how the energy produced
and shared should be treated: (a) the energy produced can only be shared using the
existing distribution network; (b) the shared energy is equal to the minimum, in
each hourly period, between the electricity produced by renewable systems and fed
into the grid and the electricity taken from the grid by the associated end users; and
(c) the energy is shared for instant self-consumption also through storage systems
installed near the buildings/condominiums.
In addition, the law clarifies the rights and duties of the members of an energy
community, who regulate the relationships among them through a private con-
tract that identifies also the manager of the shared energy. This subject can be an
external consultant or, for instance, the administrator in condominiums, to whom
the members delegate the management of payments and takings toward the sell-
ers and the Italian Energy Services manager (Gestore dei Servizi Energetici –
GSE) to this manager. In fact, the GSE plays a key role in providing access to
the incentives aimed at favoring and encouraging the implementation of collec-
tive self-consumption and energy communities schemes. The second relevant body
at national level is the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks, and Environ-
ment (Autorità di Regolazione per Energia, Reti e Ambiente – ARERA), which has
established the requirements for having access to incentives and the calculation
models to determine the fees to be paid by the GSE to collective self-consum-
ers and members of energy communities with the Deliberate 318/2020/R/eel of
August 4, 2020. Finally, with the ministerial decree of September 15, 2020, the
Italian Ministry of Economic Development (Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico –
MiSe) has characterized the incentives by defining the tariffs based on the trans-
mission and distribution components of shared energy, thus taking into account
the potential losses (Ministero delle imprese e del made in Italy, 2020). The incen-
tives proposed involve 100 €/MWh of shared energy in the case of collective self-
consumption and 110 €/MWh for renewable energy communities. These incentives
are recognized for a period of 20 years. They cannot be combined with those incen-
tives provided by the foregoing decree of July 4, 2019, which promotes the use of
electricity produced by onshore wind power, solar photovoltaic, hydroelectric, and
biogas plants (Decreto 4 luglio 2019 “Incentivazione dell’energia elettrica prodotta

dagli impianti eolici on shore, solari fotovoltaici, idroelettrici e a gas residuati dei
processi di depurazione” (in Italian), 2019), while they can be cumulated with tax
bonuses within the limits established by the law.
Thanks to this recent and rapid development of policies at national level, several
projects aimed at establishing energy communities and collective self-consumption
schemes are currently progressing in Italy. The leading energy community was
established in the town of Magliamo d’Alpi, in northern Italy, in December 2020.
The process was driven by the municipality, who installed a photovoltaic system on
the roof of the town hall and is now the coordinator and the prosumer in the REC
by sharing the energy produced. This small-scale REC provides a model that can be
replicated in the numerous similar contexts existing in Italy. Indeed, this approach
allowed the municipality to boost the spread of renewable energy systems instal-
lation, thus supporting local economic growth, and to fighting energy poverty, by
sharing the value created with people in need of energy support.
3.3 Follow-up projects
In recent years, the European Union funding program Horizon 2020, among oth-
ers, has acted as a strong facilitator in support of the progress and uptake of energy
communities. In this way, the ZERO-PLUS project has been one of the forerunners
to the numerous actions that are progressing toward the implementation of Euro-
pean energy communities and the generation and management of clean energy in
all member states. Some of these research and coordination projects in progress
that have a link with the ZERO-PLUS project are here briefly presented. However,
this is not an exhaustive list of the several relevant research, innovation, and coor-
dination actions related to this topic currently financed under the H2020 program.
The H2020 project NRG2peers (H2020 Project NRG2peers, 2020), which
stands for “Towards a new generation of EU peer-to-peer energy communities
facilitated by a gamified platform and empowered by user-centred energy trading
mechanisms and business models,” started in 2020 by taking the lead also from the
lesson learned from the ZERO-PLUS project. Indeed, this project has the purpose
of supporting the diffusion of the energy community model in Europe. It starts
from existing virtuous cases, the so-called “innovators,” thus guiding the energy
transition and the adoption of these models even in the “laggard” countries. To
this aim, the project involves nine pilot cases, including “innovators” and pioneer
energy communities, others that have been established at a later stage, and the “lag-
gards,” including, for the aforementioned reasons, two Italian cases, managed by
the University of Perugia together with the company EValTech (R&D of Elettrica
Valeri SRL) and by Politecnico di Milano together with the municipality of Milan,
respectively. The innovative and driving energy communities involved in the pro-
ject are located in the Netherlands. The objective of the project is the creation of
information and support desks at a Central European level, as well as at local level
in the different involved countries, and the development of a gamified platform
to support human-centric residential energy communities. Therefore, the focus is
on financial, legal, and technical feasibility in a short time, in order to support the
adoption and replication of the proposed model throughout Europe. Another pilot
case of this project is Luče Community, in Slovenia, which was born thanks to
the H2020 COMPILE project (H2020 Project COMPILE, 2018), started in 2018.
This project is focused on the decarbonization of energy supply and community
building in energy islands. To this aim, the consortium developed different tools
to design, manage, and support the successful achievement of this goal and tested
them in real pilot cases. These tools involve, for instance, a toolset that helps oper-
ate, control, and manage a microgrid to improve its flexibility, stability, and secu-
rity, or a building energy management application that engages users in the energy
process by providing information on energy consumption, production, and sharing.
Instead, the Lugaggia Innovation Community (LIC) (LIC, 2019) is a project
launched by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland
(SUPSI) in 2019 to set up a self-consumption community to solve the issues in the
public grid for the village of Lugaggia, Switzerland. This is done by integrating
all building outlets in one grid, making use of a district battery, and implement-
ing a community manager module that takes advantage of blockchain technology.
This community has become one of the pilot cases of the H2020 project PARITY
(H2020 Project PARITY, 2019), which is focused on the improvement of distribu-
tion grids by delivering a transactive grid and market framework. On the other hand,
the H2020 CREATORS project (H2020 Project CREATORS, 2020), which stands
for “CREATing cOmmunity eneRgy Systems,” addresses the side of community
energy systems (CES) by supporting local stakeholders in the initiation, planning,
implementation, and operation of CES throughout their entire life cycle. Moreover,
business models will be defined based on technical and financial performance data
to ensure commercial readiness and market uptake of these systems. Finally, the
H2020 project SCCALE 20–30–50 (SCCALE 20–30–50 project to grow at least 25
energy communities – REScoop, n.d.) has been just recently started, with the aim
to power and scale up energy communities around Europe. This will be done by
exploring various community energy-enabling strategies, for example, collective
self-consumption, building renovation, financing solutions, etc., and, thus, devel-
oping a series of tools and resources to support the establishment and operation of
energy communities. The final goal is to boost the setup of at least 25 energy com-
munities and 34 community projects.
4 Conclusion
The energy transition toward clean energy and reduction of greenhouse gas emis-
sions cannot be achieved only through markets and the development of increas-
ingly advanced technologies. Indeed, energy transition implies, above all, a social
transformation in which citizens have a key role. Citizens must be leading actors
in this play thanks to the awareness of their role. To this aim, the distinctive char-
acteristics of innovation and social transition of energy communities are the ability
to combine mutual and public interest and the possibility of making decentralized
renewable energies a “common good” pursued in collaboration with the different
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her historian; but for the prophecy, the history would not be....
Enthusiasm is the glory and hope of the world. It is the life of
sanctity and genius; it has wrought all miracles since the
beginning of time.”
Or turn to the following (entitled: “IV. Immortality”):—
“The grander my conception of being, the nobler my future.

There can be no sublimity of life without faith in the soul’s
eternity. Let me live superior to sense and custom, vigilant
alway, and I shall experience my divinity; my hope will be
infinite, nor shall the universe contain, or content me.”
Or read this (“XII. Temptation”):—
“Greater is he who is above temptation, than he who, being

tempted, overcomes. The latter but regains the state from
which the former has not fallen. He who is tempted has
sinned. Temptation is impossible to the holy.”
Or this (“LXXXVIII. Renunciation”):—
“Renounce the world, yourself; and you shall possess the

world, yourself, and God.”
These are but fragments, here and there. For myself, I would
gladly see these “Orphic Sayings” reprinted to-morrow, and watch
the astonishment of men and women who vaguely recall the derision
with which they were first greeted more than sixty years ago.
When it came to putting into action these high qualities, the stories
relating to Mr. Alcott which seem most improbable are those which
are unquestionably true, as is that of his way of dealing with a man in
distress who came to beg of him the loan of five dollars. To this
Alcott replied, after searching his pockets, that he had no such bank-
note about him, but could lend him ten dollars. This offer was
accepted, and Alcott did not even ask the borrower’s name, and
could merely endure the reproach or ridicule of his friends for six
months; after which the same man appeared and paid back the
money, offering interest, which was refused. The debtor turned out to
be a well-known swindler, to whom this trusting generosity had made
a novel and manly appeal.
Truth and honesty are apt to be classed in men’s minds together,
but the power of making money, or even of returning it when loaned,
is sometimes developed imperfectly among those who are in other
respects wise and good. A curious illustration of this may be found in
the published memoirs of Mr. Alcott (i, 349), but it is quite surpassed
by the following narrative, hitherto unpublished, of a subsequent
interview, even more picturesque, and apparently with the self-same
creditor. I take it from his MS. Diary, where it appears with the
formality of arrangement and beauty of handwriting which mark that
extraordinary work.
(MAMMON)
April, 1839. Thursday, 18th.—
Things seem strange to me out there in Time and Space. I
am not familiar with the order and usages of this realm. I am
at home in the kingdom of the Soul alone.
This day, I passed along our great thoroughfare, gliding
with Emerson’s check in my pocket, into State Street; and
stepped into one of Mammon’s temples, for some of the
world’s coin, wherewith to supply bread for this body of mine,
and those who depend upon me. But I felt dishonored by
resorting to these haunts of Idolaters. I went not among them
to dig in the mines of Lucre, nor to beg at the doors of the
God. It was the hour for business on ’Change, which was
swarming with worshippers. Bevies of devotees were
consulting on appropriate rites whereby to honor their divinity.
One of these devotees (cousin-german of my wife)
accosted me, as I was returning, and asked me to bring my
oblation with the others. Now I owed the publican a round
thousand, which he proffered me in days when his God
prospered his wits; but I had nothing for him. That small
pittance which I had just got snugly into my fob (thanks to my
friend E⸺) was not for him, but for my wife’s nurse, and
came just in time to save my wife from distrusting utterly the
succors of Providence. I told my man, that I had no money;
but he might have me, if he wanted me. No: I was bad stock
in the market; and so he bid me good-day. I left the buzz and
hum of these devotees, who represent old Nature’s relation to
the Appetites and Senses, and returned, with a sense of
grateful relief, from this sally into the Kingdom of Mammon,
back to my domicile in the Soul.
There was, however, strangely developed in Alcott’s later life an

epoch of positively earning money. His first efforts at Western
lectures began in the winter of 1853-54, and he returned in February,
1854. He was to give a series of talks on the representative minds of
New England, with the circle of followers surrounding each; the
subjects of his discourse being Webster, Greeley, Garrison, Margaret
Fuller, Theodore Parker, Greenough, and Emerson; the separate
themes being thus stated as seven, and the number of
conversations as only six. Terms for the course were three dollars.
By his daughter Louisa’s testimony he returned late at night with a
single dollar in his pocket, this fact being thus explained in his own
language: “Many promises were not kept and travelling is costly; but
I have opened the way, and another year shall do better.”[16] At any
rate, his daughter thus pathetically described his appearance at this
interview, as her mother wrote to a friend: “He looked as cold and
thin as an icicle; but as serene as God.”[17]
There is an almost dramatic interest in transferring our
imaginations to the later visit he made westward, when he was
eighty-one years old, between October, 1880, and May, 1881. He
then traveled more than five thousand miles, lectured or held
conversations at the rate of more than one a day, Sundays included,
and came back with a thousand dollars, although more than half of
his addresses had been gratuitous. For seven years after this he
was the nominal dean of the so-called “School of Philosophy” in
Concord, and for four years took an active part in its lectures and
discussions. His last written works were most appropriately two
sonnets on “Immortality,” this being the only theme remaining
inexhaustibly open.
Perhaps no two persons in the world were in their intellectual
method more antipodal—to use one of Alcott’s favorite phrases—
than himself and Parker, though each stood near to Emerson and
ostensibly belonged to the same body of thinkers. In debate, the
mere presence of Parker made Alcott seem uneasy, as if yielding
just cause for Emerson’s searching inquiry, “Of what use is genius, if
its focus be a little too short or too long?” No doubt, Mr. Alcott might
well be one of those to whom such criticism could fitly be applied,
just as it has been used to discourage the printing of Thoreau’s
whole journal. Is it not possible that Alcott’s fame may yet be brought
up gradually and securely, like Thoreau’s, from those ample and
beautifully written volumes which Alcott left behind him?
Alcott doubtless often erred, at first, in the direction of inflation in
language. When the Town and Country Club was organized in
Boston, and had been, indeed, established “largely to afford a
dignified occupation for Alcott,” as Emerson said, Alcott wished to
have it christened either the Olympian Club or the Pan Club. Lowell,
always quick at a joke, suggested the substitution of “Club of
Hercules” instead of “Olympian”; or else that, inasmuch as the
question of admitting women was yet undecided, “The Patty-Pan”
would be a better name. But if Alcott’s words were large, he acted up
to them. When the small assaulting party was driven back at the last
moment from the Court House doors in Boston, during the Anthony
Burns excitement, and the steps were left bare, the crowd standing
back, it was Alcott who came forward and placidly said to the ring-
leader, “Why are we not within?” On being told that the mob would
not follow, he walked calmly up the steps, alone, cane in hand. When
a revolver was fired from within, just as he had reached the highest
step, and he discovered himself to be still unsupported, he as calmly
turned and walked down without hastening a footstep. It was hard to
see how Plato or Pythagoras could have done the thing better.
Again, at the outbreak of the Civil War, when a project was formed
for securing the defense of Washington by a sudden foray into
Virginia, it appears from his Diary that he had been at the point of
joining it, when it was superseded by the swift progress of events,
and so abandoned.
The power of early sectarian training is apt to tell upon the later
years even of an independent thinker, and so it was with Alcott. In
his case a life-long ideal attitude passed back into something hard to
distinguish from old-fashioned Calvinism. This was especially
noticeable at the evening receptions of the Rev. Joseph Cook, who
flattered Alcott to the highest degree and was met at least halfway by
the seer himself. Having been present at one or two of these
receptions, I can testify to the disappointment inspired in Alcott’s
early friends at his seeming willingness to be made a hero in an
attitude quite alien to that of his former self. The “New International,”
for instance, recognizes that “in later years his manner became more
formal and his always nebulous teaching apparently more orthodox.”
Be this as it may, the man whom Emerson called “the most
extraordinary man and highest genius of the time,” and of whom he
says, “As pure intellect I have never seen his equal,” such a man
needed only the fact of his unprotected footsteps under fire up the
stairs of the Boston Court House to establish him in history as a truly
all-round man,—unsurpassed among those of his own generation
even in physical pluck.
IX
GEORGE BANCROFT
GEORGE BANCROFT
George Bancroft, who died in Washington, D. C., on January 17,
1891, was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, October 3, 1800,
being the son of Aaron and Lucretia (Chandler) Bancroft. His first
American ancestor in the male line was John Bancroft, who came to
this country from England, arriving on June 12, 1632, and settling at
Lynn, Massachusetts. There is no evidence of any especial literary
or scholarly tastes in his early ancestors, although one at least
among them became a subject for literature, being the hero of one of
Cotton Mather’s wonderful tales of recovery from smallpox. Samuel
Bancroft, grandfather of the great historian, was a man in public
station, and is described by Savage as “possessing the gift of
utterance in an eminent degree”; and the historian’s father, Rev.
Aaron Bancroft, D. D., was a man of mark. He was born in 1755,
fought at Lexington and Bunker Hill when almost a boy, was
graduated at Harvard College in 1778, studied for the ministry,
preached for a time in Nova Scotia, was settled at Worcester in
1788, and died there in 1839. He was a member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, was an Arminian in theology, and in
later life was President of the American Unitarian Association. He
published various occasional sermons, a volume of doctrinal
discourses, and (in 1807) a “Life of Washington,” which was
reprinted in England, and rivaled in circulation the larger work of
Marshall, which appeared at about the same time. He thus
bequeathed literary tastes to his thirteen children; and though only
one of these reached public eminence, yet three of the daughters
were prominent for many years in Worcester, being in charge of a
school for girls, and highly esteemed; while another sister was well
known in Massachusetts and at Washington as the wife of Governor
(afterwards Senator) John Davis.
George Bancroft was fitted for college at Exeter Academy, where
he was especially noted for his fine declamation. He entered Harvard
College in 1813, taking his degree in 1817. He was the classmate of
four men destined to be actively prominent in the great anti-slavery
agitation a few years later,—Samuel J. May, Samuel E. Sewall,
David Lee Child, and Robert F. Wallcut,—and of one prospective
opponent of it, Caleb Cushing. Other men of note in the class were
the Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D. D., the Rev. Alva Woods, D. D., and
Samuel A. Eliot, afterwards Treasurer of the College and father of its
recent President. Mr. Bancroft was younger than any of these, and
very probably the youngest in his class, being less than seventeen at
graduation. He was, however, second in rank, and it happened that
Edward Everett, then recently appointed Professor of Greek
Literature in that institution, had proposed that some young graduate
of promise should be sent to Germany for purposes of study, that he
might afterwards become one of the corps of Harvard instructors.
Accordingly, Bancroft was selected, and went, in the early summer of
1818, to Göttingen. At that time the University had among its
professors Eichhorn, Heeren, and Blumenbach. He also studied at
Berlin, where he knew Schleiermacher, Savigny, and Wilhelm von
Humboldt. At Jena he saw Goethe, and at Heidelberg studied under
Schlosser. This last was in the spring of 1821, when he had already
received his degree of Ph. D. at Göttingen and was making the tour
of Europe. At Paris he met Cousin, Constant, and Alexander von
Humboldt; he knew Manzoni at Milan, and Bunsen and Niebuhr at
Rome. The very mention of these names seems to throw his early
career far back into the past. Such experiences were far rarer then
than now, and the return from them into what was the village-like life
of Harvard College was a far greater change. Yet he came back at
last and discharged his obligations, in a degree, by a year’s service
as Greek tutor.
It was not, apparently, a satisfactory position, for although he
dedicated a volume of poems to President Kirkland, “with respect
and affection,” as to his “early benefactor and friend,” yet we have
the testimony of George Ticknor (in Miss Ticknor’s Life of J. G.
Cogswell) that Bancroft was “thwarted in every movement by the
President.” Mr. Ticknor was himself a professor in the college, and
though his view may not have been dispassionate, he must have
had the opportunity of knowledge. His statement is rendered more
probable by the fact that he records a similar discontent in the case
of Professor J. G. Cogswell, who was certainly a man of conciliatory
temperament. By Ticknor’s account, Mr. Cogswell, who had been
arranging the Harvard College Library and preparing the catalogue,
was quite unappreciated by the Corporation, and though Ticknor
urged both him and Bancroft to stay, they were resolved to leave,
even if their proposed school came to nothing. The school in
question was the once famous “Round Hill” at Northampton, in which
enterprise Cogswell, then thirty-six, and Bancroft, then twenty-three,
embarked in 1823. The latter had already preached several
sermons, and seemed to be feeling about for his career; but it now
appeared as if he had found it.
In embarking, however, he warbled a sort of swan-song at the
close of his academical life, and published in September, 1823, a
small volume of eighty pages, printed at the University Press,
Cambridge, and entitled “Poems by George Bancroft. Cambridge:
Hilliard & Metcalf.” Some of these were written in Switzerland, some
in Italy, some, after his return home, at Worcester; but almost all
were European in theme, and neither better nor worse than the
average of such poems by young men of twenty or thereabouts. The
first, called “Expectation,” is the most noticeable, for it contains an
autobiographical glimpse of this young academical Childe Harold
setting forth on his pilgrimage:—
“’Twas in the season when the sun

More darkly tinges spring’s fair brow,
And laughing fields had just begun
The summer’s golden hues to show.
Earth still with flowers was richly dight,
And the last rose in gardens glowed;
In heaven’s blue tent the sun was bright,
And western winds with fragrance flowed;
’Twas then a youth bade home adieu;
And hope was young and life was new,
When first he seized the pilgrim’s wand
To roam the far, the foreign land.
“There lives the marble, wrought by art.

That clime the youth would gain; he braves
The ocean’s fury, and his heart
Leaps in him, like the sunny waves
That bear him onward; and the light
Of hope within his bosom beams,
Like the phosphoric ray at night
That round the prow so cheerly gleams.
But still his eye would backward turn,
And still his bosom warmly burn,
As towards new worlds he ’gan to roam,
With love for Freedom’s Western home.”
This is the opening poem; the closing words of the book, at the
end of the final “Pictures of Rome,” are in a distinctly patriotic strain:
—
“Farewell to Rome; how lovely in distress;

How sweet her gloom; how proud her wilderness!
Farewell to all that won my youthful heart,
And waked fond longings after fame. We part.
The weary pilgrim to his home returns;
For Freedom’s air, for Western climes he burns;
Where dwell the brave, the generous, and the free,
O! there is Rome; no other Rome for me.”
It was in order to train these young children of the Republic—“the

brave, the generous, and the free”—that Bancroft entered upon the
“Round Hill” enterprise.
This celebrated school belonged to that class of undertakings
which are so successful as to ruin their projectors. It began in a
modest way; nothing could be more sensible than the
“Prospectus,”—a pamphlet of twenty pages, issued at Cambridge,
June 20, 1823. In this there is a clear delineation of the defects then
existing in American schools; and a modest promise is given that,
aided by the European experience of the two founders, something
like a French collège or a German gymnasium might be created.
There were to be not more than twenty pupils, who were to be from
nine to twelve on entering. A fine estate was secured at
Northampton, and pupils soon came in.
Then followed for several years what was at least a very happy
family. The school was to be in many respects on the German plan:
farm life, friendly companionship, ten-mile rambles through the
woods with the teachers, and an annual walking tour in the same
company. All instruction was to be thorough; there was to be no
direct emulation, and no flogging. There remain good delineations of
the school in the memoirs of Dr. Cogswell, and in a paper by the late
T. G. Appleton, one of the pupils. It is also described by Duke
Bernard of Saxe-Weimar in his “Travels.” The material of the school
was certainly fortunate. Many men afterwards noted in various ways
had their early training there: J. L. Motley, H. W. Bellows, R. T. S.
Lowell, F. Schroeder, Ellery Channing, G. E. Ellis, Theodore
Sedgwick, George C. Shattuck, S. G. Ward, R. G. Shaw, N. B.
Shurtleff, George Gibbs, Philip Kearney, R. G. Harper. At a dinner
given to Dr. Cogswell in 1864, the most profuse expressions of
grateful reminiscence were showered upon Mr. Bancroft, though he
was then in Europe. The prime object of the school, as stated by Mr.
Ticknor, was “to teach more thoroughly than has ever been taught
among us.” How far this was accomplished can only be surmised;
what is certain is that the boys enjoyed themselves. They were
admirably healthy, not having a case of illness for sixteen months,
and they were happy. When we say that, among other delights, the
boys had a large piece of land where they had a boy-village of their
own, a village known as Cronyville, a village where each boy erected
his own shanty and built his own chimney, where he could roast
apples and potatoes on a winter evening and call the neighbors in,—
when each boy had such absolute felicity as this, with none to molest
him or make him afraid, there is no wonder that the “old boys” were
ready to feast their kindly pedagogues forty years later.
But to spread barracks for boys and crony villages over the
delightful hills of Northampton demanded something more than
kindliness; it needed much administrative skill and some money.
Neither Cogswell nor Bancroft was a man of fortune. Instead of
twenty boys, they had at one time one hundred and twenty-seven,
nearly fifty of whom had to be kept through the summer vacation.
They had many Southern pupils and, as an apparent consequence,
many bad debts, Mr. Cogswell estimating a loss of two thousand
dollars from this cause in a single year; and sometimes they had to
travel southward to dun delinquent parents. The result of it all was
that Bancroft abandoned the enterprise after seven years, in the
summer of 1830; while Cogswell, who held on two years longer,
retired with health greatly impaired and a financial loss of twenty
thousand dollars. Thus ended the Round Hill School.
While at Round Hill, Mr. Bancroft prepared some text-books for his
pupils, translating Heeren’s “Politics of Ancient Greece” (1824) and
Jacobs’s Latin Reader (1825),—the latter going through several
editions. His first article in the “North American Review,” then the
leading literary journal in the United States, appeared in October,
1823, and was a notice of Schiller’s “Minor Poems,” with many
translations. From this time forward he wrote in almost every volume,
but always on classical or German themes, until in January, 1831, he
took up “The Bank of the United States,” and a few years later
(October, 1835), “The Documentary History of the Revolution.”
These indicated the progress of his historical studies, which had also
begun at Round Hill, and took form at last in his great history. The
design of this monumental work was as deliberate as Gibbon’s, and
almost as vast; and the author lived, like Gibbon, to see it
accomplished. The first volume appeared in 1834, the second in
1837, the third in 1840, the fourth in 1852, and so onward. Between
these volumes was interspersed a variety of minor essays, some of
which were collected in a volume of “Literary and Historical
Miscellanies,” published in 1855. Bancroft also published, as a
separate work, a “History of the Formation of the Constitution of the
United States” (1882).
While at Northampton, he was an ardent Democrat of the most
theoretic and philosophic type, and he very wisely sought to acquaint
himself with the practical side of public affairs. In 1826 he gave an
address at Northampton, defining his position and sympathies; in
1830 he was elected to the Legislature, but declined to take his seat,
and the next year refused a nomination to the Senate. In 1835 he
drew up an address to the people of Massachusetts, made many
speeches and prepared various sets of resolutions, was flattered,
traduced, caricatured. From 1838 to 1841 he was Collector of the
Port of Boston; in 1844 he was Democratic candidate for Governor
of Massachusetts, but was defeated,—George N. Briggs being his
successful antagonist,—although he received more votes than any
Democratic candidate before him. In 1845 he was Secretary of the
Navy under President Polk. In all these executive positions he may
be said to have achieved success. It was, for instance, during his
term of office that the Naval Academy was established at Annapolis;
it was he who gave the first order to take possession of California;
and he who, while acting for a month as Secretary of War, gave the
order to General Taylor to march into Texas, thus ultimately leading
to the annexation of that state. This, however, identified him with a
transaction justly censurable, and indeed his whole political career
occurred during the most questionable period of Democratic
subserviency to the slave power, and that weakness was never
openly—perhaps never sincerely—resisted by him. This left a
reproach upon his earlier political career which has, however, been
effaced by his literary life and his honorable career as a diplomatist.
In 1846 he was transferred from the Cabinet to the post of Minister
Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, where he contrived to combine
historical researches with public functions. In 1849 he returned to
this country—a Whig administration having been elected—and took
up his residence in New York. In February, 1866, he was selected by
Congress to pronounce a eulogy on President Lincoln, and in the
following year he was appointed Minister to Prussia, being
afterwards successively accredited to the North German
Confederation and the German Empire. In these positions he
succeeded in effecting some important treaty provisions in respect to
the rights of naturalized German citizens residing in Germany. He
was recalled at his own request in 1874, and thenceforward resided
in Washington in the winter, and at Newport, Rhode Island, in
summer.
Dividing his life between these two abodes, he passed his later
years in a sort of existence more common in Europe than here,—the
well-earned dignity of the scholar who has also been, in his day, a
man of affairs, and who is yet too energetic to repose upon his
laurels or waste much time upon merely enjoying the meed of fame
he has won. In both his winter and summer abodes he had
something of the flattering position of First Citizen; he was free of all
sets, an honored member of all circles. His manners were often
mentioned as “courtly,” but they never quite rose to the level of either
of the two classes of manner described by Tennyson:—
“Kind nature is the best, those manners next

That fit us like a nature second-hand;
Which are indeed the manners of the great.”
Neither of these descriptions exactly fitted Mr. Bancroft; his manners

were really of the composite sort, and curiously suggestive of the
different phases of his life. They were like that wonderful Japanese
lacquer-work, made up of twenty or thirty different coats or films,
usually laid on by several different workmen. There was at the
foundation the somewhat formal and literal manner of the scholar,
almost of the pedagogue: then one caught a glimpse of an
executive, official style, that seemed to date from the period when he
ordered California to be occupied; and over all there was a varnish of
worldly courtesy, enhanced by an evident pleasure in being admired,
and broken by an occasional outburst of rather blunt sincerity.
But he matured and mellowed well; his social life at Washington
was more satisfactory to himself and others than that he led in New
York; he had voluntarily transplanted himself to a community which,
with all its faults and crudities, sets intellect above wealth, and
readily conceded the highest place to a man like Bancroft. Foreign
ministers came accredited to him as well as to the government; he
was the friend of every successive administration, and had as many
guests as he cared to see at his modest Sunday evening receptions.
There he greeted every one cordially, aided by a wife amply gifted in
the amenities. He was kind to everybody, and remembered the
father or grandfather of anybody who had any such ancestors whom
it was desirable to mention. In summer, at Newport, it was the same;
his residence was like that described by his imagination in one of his
own early poems—
“Where heaven lends her loveliest scene,
A softened air, a sky serene,
Along the shore where smiles the sea.”
Unlike most Newport “cottages,” his house was within sight of the
ocean; between it and the sea lay the garden, and the “rose in
Kenmure’s cap” in the Scottish ballad was not a characteristic more
invariable than the same flower in Mr. Bancroft’s hand or buttonhole.
His form was familiar, too, on Bellevue Avenue, taking as regularly
as any old-fashioned Englishman his daily horseback exercise. At
the same time he was one of the few men who were capable, even
in Newport, of doing daily the day’s work; he rose fabulously early in
the morning, and kept a secretary or two always employed. Since
John Quincy Adams, there has not been among us such an example
of laborious, self-exacting, seemingly inexhaustible old age; and,
unlike Adams, Mr. Bancroft kept his social side always fresh and
active, and did not have, like the venerable ex-President, to force
himself out in the evening in order “to learn the art of conversation.”
This combination, with his monumental literary work, will keep his
memory secure. It will possibly outlive that of many men of greater
inspiration, loftier aims, and sublimer qualities.
Mr. Bancroft, as an historian, combined some of the greatest
merits and some of the profoundest defects ever united in a single
author. His merits are obvious enough. He had great enthusiasm for
his subject. He was profoundly imbued with that democratic spirit
without which the history of the United States cannot be justly
written. He has the graphic quality so wanting in Hildreth, and the
piquancy whose absence makes Prescott too smooth. He has a style
essentially picturesque, whatever may be its faults. The reader is
compelled to admit that his resources in the way of preparation are
inexhaustible, and that his command of them is astounding. One
must follow him minutely, for instance, through the history of the War
for Independence, to appreciate in full the consummate grasp of a
mind which can deploy military events in a narrative as a general
deploys brigades in a field. Add to this the capacity for occasional
maxims to the highest degree profound and lucid, in the way of
political philosophy, and you certainly combine in one man some of
the greatest qualities of the historian.
Against this are to be set very grave faults. In his earlier editions
there was an habitual pomposity and inflation of style which the
sterner taste of his later years has so modified that we must now
condone it. The same heroic revision has cut off many tame and
commonplace remarks as trite as those virtuous truisms by which
second-rate actors bring down the applause of the galleries at cheap
theatres. Many needless philosophical digressions have shared the
same fate. But many faults remain. There is, in the first place, that
error so common with the graphic school of historians,—the
exaggerated estimate of manuscript or fragmentary material at the
expense of what is printed and permanent. In many departments of
history this dependence is inevitable; but, unfortunately, Mr. Bancroft
was not, except in the very earliest volumes of his history, dealing
with such departments. The loose and mythical period of our history
really ends with Captain John Smith. From the moment when the
Pilgrims landed, the main facts of American history are to be found
recorded in a series of carefully prepared documents, made by men
to whom the pen was familiar, and who were exceedingly methodical
in all their ways. The same is true of all the struggles which led to the
Revolution, and of all those which followed. They were the work of
honest-minded Anglo-Saxon men who, if they issued so much as a
street hand-bill, said just what they meant, and meant precisely what
they said. To fill the gaps in this solid documentary chain is, no
doubt, desirable,—to fill them by every passing rumor, every
suggestion of a French agent’s busy brain; but to substitute this
inferior matter for the firmer basis is wrong. Much of the graphic
quality of Mr. Bancroft’s writing is obtained by this means, and this
portends, in certain directions, a future shrinkage and diminution in
his fame.
A fault far more serious than this is one which Mr. Bancroft shared
with his historical contemporaries, but in which he far exceeded any
of them,—an utter ignoring of the very meaning and significance of a
quotation-mark. Others of that day sinned. The long controversy
between Jared Sparks and Lord Mahon grew out of this,—from the
liberties taken by Sparks in editing Washington’s letters. Professor
Edward T. Channing did the same thing in quoting the racy diaries of
his grandfather, William Ellery, and substituting, for instance, in a
passage cited as original, “We refreshed ourselves with meat and
drink,” for the far racier “We refreshed our Stomachs with Beefsteaks
and Grogg.” Hildreth, in quoting from the “Madison Papers,” did the
same, for the sake not of propriety, but of convenience; even
Frothingham made important omissions and variations, without
indicating them, in quoting Hooke’s remarkable sermon, “New
England’s Teares.” But Bancroft is the chief of sinners in this respect;
when he quotes a contemporary document or letter, it is absolutely
impossible to tell, without careful verifying, whether what he gives us
between the quotation-marks is precisely what should be there, or
whether it is a compilation, rearrangement, selection, or even a
series of mere paraphrases of his own. It would be easy to illustrate
this abundantly, especially from the Stamp Act volume; but a single
instance will suffice.
When, in 1684, an English fleet sailed into Boston harbor,
ostensibly on its way to attack the Dutch settlements on the Hudson,
it left behind a royal commission, against whose mission of
interference the colonial authorities at once protested, and they
issued a paper, as one historian has said, “in words so clear and
dignified as to give a foretaste of the Revolutionary state papers that
were to follow a century later.” If ever there was a document in our
pre-Revolutionary history that ought to be quoted precisely as it was
written, or not at all, it was this remonstrance. It thus begins in
Bancroft’s version, and the words have often been cited by others.
He says of the colony of Massachusetts: “Preparing a remonstrance,
not against deeds of tyranny, but the menace of tyranny, not against
actual wrong, but against a principle of wrong, on the 25th of
October, it thus addressed King Charles II.” The alleged address is
then given, apparently in full, and then follows the remark, “The spirit
of the people corresponded with this address.” It will hardly be
believed that there never was any such address, and that no such
document was ever in existence as that so formally cited here. Yet
any one who will compare Bancroft’s draft with the original in the
Records of Massachusetts (volume iv, part 2, pages 168-169) will be
instantly convinced of this. Bancroft has simply taken phrases and
sentences here and there from a long document and rearranged,
combined, and, in some cases, actually paraphrased them in his
own way. Logically and rhetorically the work is his own. The colonial
authorities adopted their own way of composition, and he adopted
his. In some sentences we have Bancroft, not Endicott; the
nineteenth century, not the seventeenth. Whether the transformation
is an improvement or not is not the question; the thing cited is not the
original. An accurate historian would no more have issued such a
restatement under the shelter of quotation-marks than an accurate
theologian would have rewritten the Ten Commandments and read
his improved edition from the pulpit. And it is a curious fact that while
Mr. Bancroft has amended so much else in his later editions, he has
left this passage untouched, and still implies an adherence to the
tradition that this is the way to write history.
It is also to be noted that the evil is doubled when this practice is
combined with the other habit, already mentioned, of relying largely
upon manuscript authorities. If an historian garbles, paraphrases,
and rearranges when he is dealing with matter accessible to all, how
much greater the peril when he is dealing with what is in written
documents held under his own lock and key. It is not necessary to
allege intentional perversion, but we are, at the very least, absolutely
at the mercy of an inaccurate habit of mind. The importance of this
point is directly manifested on opening the leaves of Mr. Bancroft’s
last and perhaps most valuable book, “The History of the
Constitution.” The most important part of this book consists, by
concession of all, in the vast mass of selections from the private
correspondence of the period: for instance, of M. Otto, the French
Ambassador. We do not hesitate to say that, if tried by the standard
of Mr. Bancroft’s previous literary methods, this mass of
correspondence, though valuable as suggestion, is worthless as
authority. Until it has been carefully collated and compared with the
originals, we do not know that a paragraph or a sentence of it is left
as the author wrote it; the system of paraphrase previously exhibited
throws the shadow of doubt over all. No person can safely cite one
of these letters in testimony; no person knows whether any particular
statement contained in it comes to us in the words of its supposed
author or of Mr. Bancroft. It is no answer to say that this loose
method was the method of certain Greek historians; if Thucydides
composed speeches for his heroes, it was at least known that he
prepared them, and there was not the standing falsehood of a
quotation-mark.
A drawback quite as serious is to be found in this, that Mr.
Bancroft’s extraordinary labors in old age were not usually devoted
to revising the grounds of his own earlier judgments, but to
perfecting his own style of expression, and to weaving in additional
facts at those points which especially interested him. Professor
Agassiz used to say that the greatest labor of the student of biology
came from the enormous difficulty of keeping up with current
publications and the proceedings of societies; a man could carry on
his own observations, but he could not venture to publish them
without knowing all the latest statements made by other observers.
Mr. Bancroft had to encounter the same obstacle in his historical
work, and it must be owned that he sometimes ignored it. Absorbed
in his own great stores of material, he often let the work of others go
unobserved. It would be easy to multiply instances. Thus, the
controversies about Verrazzano’s explorations were conveniently
settled by omitting his name altogether; there was no revision of the
brief early statement that the Norse sagas were “mythological,”
certainly one of the least appropriate adjectives that could have been
selected; Mr. Bancroft never even read—up to within a few years of
his death, at any rate—the important monographs of Varnhagen in
respect to Amerigo Vespucci; he did not keep up with the
publications of the historical societies. Laboriously revising his whole
history in 1876, and almost rewriting it for the edition of 1884, he
allowed the labors of younger investigators to go on around him
unobserved. The consequence is that much light has been let in
upon American history in directions where he has not so much as a
window; and there are points where his knowledge, vast as it is, will
be found to have been already superseded. In this view, that cannot
be asserted of him which the late English historian, Mr. J. R. Green,
proudly and justly claimed for himself: “I know what men will say of
me—he died learning.” But Mr. Bancroft at least died laboring, and in
the harness.
Mr. Bancroft was twice married, first to Miss Sarah H. Dwight, who
died June 26, 1837, and in the following year to Mrs. Elizabeth
(Davis) Bliss. By the first marriage he had several children, of whom
John Chandler (Harvard, 1854) died in Europe, and George
(Harvard, 1856) has spent most of his life in foreign countries.

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Full download test bank at ebookmeta.

Net-Zero and Positive Energy Communities: Best

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This book presents a methodology for the design, construction, monitoring,

• Practical guidance drawn from the interdisciplinary, international, and remote

Shabtai Isaac is Senior Lecturer in Project Management at Ben Gurion University

Edited by Shabtai Isaac, Isaac Meir,

1 Introduction to net-zero and positive-energy communities 1

2 Background: the current energy community implementation

3 Methodology: the ZERO-PLUS approach 33

4 Part 1: UK case study 47

Part 2: Energy modeling of positive-energy dwellings 64

5 Part 1: Italian case study 72

Part 2: Community-level strategies for microclimate

6 Part 1: Cypriot case study 102

Part 2: Production and installation planning 119

7 Part 1: French case study 130

Part 2: Project and design management – best practices

8 Part 1: Concentrating solar energy – the FAE system 144

Part 2: Bot-based building design 151

Part 3: Solar air-conditioning – the Freescoo system 160

9 Monitoring and evaluation of the performance

10 Post-occupancy evaluation: the missing link 187

Conclusions, or a more critical rethinking of the project 204

(D’Agostino, 2015). This uncertainty has effects on building design, considering

1.1 Definition of net-zero and positive-energy settlements

1.2  ransition of NZE concept from an individual building

Figure 1.1 The various components of an NZES.

• The adaptation of the buildings to improve indoor thermal comfort (Taveres-

The microclimate mitigation strategy enables mitigating the outdoor heat

3 Existing application and outcomes

applications practically confirm the viability of the technologies employed for

3.1  he strategies for mitigation of outdoor heat sources used in net-zero

consumption. Nevertheless, the building envelope and the ventilation strategies

3.3  he renewable energy technologies and the energy management

List of technologies Outcomes

Mitigation • Vegetation (trees, shrubs, • Reduction of the ambient

4 Conclusion and scope of further studies

• For the enhancement of the self-consumption of energy (Sokolnikova et al., 2020)

1. Mitigation strategies. At present, a limited number of case studies considered

Figure 1.2 Further measures and tools for future NZES.

community. Therefore, an extensive adaptation of the buildings with high-

domestic waste heat by thermoelectric generator), which is not widely devised

D’Agostino, D. (2015). Assessment of the progress towards the establishment of definitions

implementation. Building and Environment, 149, 446–457. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.

In the international panorama, the discussion is led by the group headed by

2.1 European regulatory framework

In the European regulatory framework, certain categories of community energy

economic activity cannot be the participation in the energy community. Although

Therefore, the European Union recognizes and proposes a legislative framework

2.2 Virtuous cases in Europe

1 Introduction to net-zero and positive-energy communities 1

3 Methodology: the ZERO-PLUS approach 33

4 Part 1: UK case study 47

Part 2: Energy modeling of positive-energy dwellings 64

5 Part 1: Italian case study 72

6 Part 1: Cypriot case study 102

Part 2: Production and installation planning 119

7 Part 1: French case study 130

8 Part 1: Concentrating solar energy – the FAE system 144

Part 2: Bot-based building design 151

Part 3: Solar air-conditioning – the Freescoo system 160

10 Post-occupancy evaluation: the missing link 187

Conclusions, or a more critical rethinking of the project 204

1.1 Definition of net-zero and positive-energy settlements

1.2 ransition of NZE concept from an individual building

3 Existing application and outcomes

3.1 he strategies for mitigation of outdoor heat sources used in net-zero

3.3 he renewable energy technologies and the energy management

4 Conclusion and scope of further studies

2.1 European regulatory framework

2.2 Virtuous cases in Europe

3.1 Lesson learned

3.2 National regulatory framework in Italy

3.3 Follow-up projects