Casa Energia Expo-2008

Casa Energia Expo, the important event dedicated to homes that produce and save energy, will be held once again at the Datchforum of Assago, Milano, from 7 to 9 November, and will have on show materials, technologies, products and services for a new way of living able to combine comfort, wellbeing and environmental sustainability.

With 6, 000 square metres of exhibition area divided over two pavilions, and a rich conference programme, the Fair, now at its third edition, is well on the way to being even more successful than the 2007 edition, thanks to the considerable growth of this strongly developing market.

As is now well known, the best way to save energy is that of consuming the least possible. But energy saving alone is not enough to change the fate of the only planet that we have. The global energy crisis that we are undergoing demonstrates that it is ever more urgent to change our lifestyle and our way of producing energy.

We are faced with a fundamental decision that consists in the necessary change of the cultural and economic paradigm that has informed industrial production and the economy over the past 200 years; if fossil sources are no longer sufficient to sustain the promise of the future in terms of economic and environmental sustainability, we must turn to new sources that are able to substitute them. And if to the concept of crisis we give a positive acceptance of the chance of change, in this moment thinking about new ways of living can be the perfect ethical and economical occasion for this change.
An emergency, that of sustainability, now recognized globally. 2009 has been proclaimed by Unesco as the International Year of Planet Earth and will see scholars and scientists from all over the world involved in the search for solutions for the sustainable use of resources, who will discuss energy, the health of our planet, land, oceans, climate changes and natural risks.

The most important challenge is that of eco-construction. In fact, houses play an important part in resource consumption: just think about the economic and industrial activities generated by the construction sector as well as other related activities. Our homes, the last link in the chain of this enormous group of activities, have a significant part in the emission of greenhouse gas in their entire “lives”, from construction to maintenance. The design of a building or the renovation of the same as per sustainable parameters therefore means that this work must have a minimum impact on the environment, both regional and global.

The coming into effect of Legal Decree 311/2006, which concerns energy efficiency in the construction sector, aims to stimulate the use of technologies for the rationalization of consumption, exploitation of renewable sources and energy re-qualification of existing buildings. The decree has a vast sphere of application: the planning and realization of new buildings, as well as plants and systems in these new buildings, renovation work of existing buildings, systems and plants; operations, control, maintenance and inspection of thermal plants of buildings, both new and already existing. The decree also introduces, as of 2009, mandatory energy certification for buying and selling buildings. A normative that will involve the entire real estate market and will open (and is already opening now) a wide area of the Market that will have to deal with new construction solutions and innovative materials. Synergy among planning, research, consultancy and production that is ever more requested for the introduction of integrated solutions for energy savings on the market.

Our country is well equipped with the necessary tools to win this challenge and to enter this promising market with its technologies, companies and, last but not least, climatic conditions.
In fact, countries of the Mediterranean area have the highest levels of incoming solar radiation energy in Europe and positioning it as a privileged territory for the development and installation of photovoltaic and solar thermal plants. In Italy, the Energy Account has enabled a rapid acceleration of the sector promoting the creation of electricity from renewable sources by means of photovoltaic plants connected permanently to the electricity grid. And it is exactly by virtue of the Energy Account that the Minister for the Environment Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio has announced that, as of the summer of 2008, the quantity of photovoltaic energy installed in Italy will reach 200 MW. “With the Energy Account system, ” the Minister declared, “We have gone from 34 MW in 2005 to over 74 MW of today, but if we take into consideration the authorizations issued by the Electricity Management Services we can estimate that before summer we will reach 200 MW”. A growth of 500%.

Reducing the environmental impact of our houses is also possible by means of geothermal energy: a technology that is, today, also used on a joint-ownership scale with small plants able to exploit the energy of the subsoil for the heating and/or cooling of apartments.
Important developments are also foreseen for fuel cells technology for static applications and for the production of electricity and heat. Innovative solutions are also coming from bio-construction and pre-fab houses, leading to systems, techniques and materials able to face an ever more impellent need of resistant and economic natural solutions such as high-efficiency boilers, heaters and fireplaces which use biomass and a considerable reduction of environmental impact.
Saving energy is possible by improving the energy efficiency of buildings using thermal insulation, solar cooling, air conditioning, window and door frames, as well as thermographic studies to identify the weak points of the structure and to obtain energy certification.
And more: for a low environmental impact house it is also possible to contact suppliers of green energy; choosing, in other words, certified ecological energy from renewable sources (wind, solar, hydro-electric, biomass) or micro- and mini wind energy systems able to produce small quantities of electricity also in combination with photovoltaic panels.

The tools and the techniques available for a different way of living are many. But how can we find the right solution among these numerous ideas? To find out in detail about the systems, techniques, materials and services for houses that save and produce energy, and after the important success of the last edition where over 9, 000 visitors came to see the stands of 130 exhibitors, Casa Energia Expo 2008 will be held, once again from 7 to 9 November at the Datchforum of Assago, Milano. This third edition will, as usual, offer a detailed and varied panorama of what the market has to offer.

Casa Energia Expo 2008 will see the presence of exhibiting companies of the following sectors:
Photovoltaic plants
Thermal solar plants
Boilers, heaters and fireplaces
Pre-fab houses and bio-construction
Domotics and safety
Thermal and acoustic insulation
Air conditioning
Windows and frames
Energy from wood and biomass
Solar cooling
Geothermal energy
Thermographics
Heating pumps
Micro co-generation
Floor and wall heating
Energy certification
Micro and mini wind energy plants
Green energy
Construction companies and real estate agencies
Sustainable transport

Casa Energia Expo 2008 will have as exhibitors, the most important companies of the building, plant, energy and living sectors for the control of energy costs and the self-production of energy from renewable sources. A show that is now the link between demand and offer and that aims at stimulating the updating, technical knowledge and information regarding products, materials, solutions and technologies. At Casa Energia Expo 2008 companies interested in presenting their products in a prestigious environment that will enables them to expand their sales network, to meet new commercial and industrial partners, gain new contacts with other exhibiting companies and open markets in new product sectors.

Casa Energia Expo 2008 is aimed at a public of architects, engineers, fitters, surveyors, construction companies, building products tradesmen, installers, apartment building administrators, public institutions, universities, local bodies and end users who will be able to see with their own eyes the products, plants, technologies and services; to find out about the new solutions for energy savings and self-production of energy; to be updated with regards to incentives and the new Italian and European directives concerning energy savings and the Energy Account, as well as to meet with experts and operators of the national and international markets with which to evaluate new business opportunities and investments.

Alongside the exhibition, Casa Energia Expo 2008 will also have a rich conference programme that will be the perfect place for technical, cultural and normative comparison and study that will see the participation of the most important experts of the sector, s well as public and private institutions and research organizations. Aim of these meeting will be the circulation of knowledge, the promotion of policies of sustainability and development to house that produce and save energy, as well as the approach to a market that is undergoing constant expansion both economically and occupationally.