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

Abstract Raising energy consumption observed in sport events for the last decades leads the organizing associations to develop adequate strategies for counteracting this. While the active systems (installed on or integrated in buildings) had been already significantly enhanced to produce renewable energy with high efficiency, the passive strategies still present room for development. This study aims at providing useful information that can orient decision-makers towards wiser choices through the comparison of two alternative configurations, which are respectively based on active and passive strategies. A building-integrated photovoltaic (BiPV) plant and a cool surface treatment to increase solar reflectance were investigated in the Dacia Arena football stadium (Italy). Economic and environmental analyses were carried out in order to identify the limits and potentials of the two strategies. The variables considered in the analyses included the installing costs, costs for the replacement, earnings due to energy production, profits from Emission Trading System for carbon credits, and savings from reduced energy consumption (if compared to initial configuration). The results demonstrated that highly-reflective coating guarantees a lower impact than BiPV plant in terms of economics, and permits paying back the installing costs in a shorter time interval. When it comes to the environmental analyses, the amount of compensated emissions is around 100 kgCO2-eq/m2 for the passive scenario and 1500 kgCO2-eq/m2 for the active scenario.