Publications by Maria Cristina Munari Probst

A cross-country perspective on solar energy in urban planning: Lessons learned from international case studies

This work, framed in the IEA SHC Task 51 "Solar Energy in Urban Planning", presents an illustrative perspective of solar energy in urban planning through the analysis of 34 international case studies conducted in 10 countries. The aim here is to examine ch ...

2019

Criteria and policies to master the visual impact of solar systems in urban environments: The LESO-QSV method

Christian Roecker, Maria Cristina Munari Probst

Increased use of solar collectors in buildings is necessary but poses major challenges in existing built environ ments, especially where architectural quality is an issue. The large size of solar systems at the building scale requires careful planning, as ...

2019

Assessing visibility in multi-scale urban planning: A contribution to a method enhancing social acceptability of solar energy in cities

Christian Roecker, Jean-Louis Scartezzini, Josef Andreas Schuler, Maria Cristina Munari Probst, Pietro Florio

Urban areas are facing a growing deployment of solar photovoltaic and thermal technologies on building envelopes, both on roofs and on façades. An effective solar energy planning process considers social acceptance, in relation to the landscape alteration ...

2018

Visual prominence vs architectural sensitivity of solar applications in existing urban areas: an experience with web-shared photos

Jean-Louis Scartezzini, Andreas Schueler, Maria Cristina Munari Probst, Pietro Florio

Architectural integration of solar technologies in the built environment is a challenge: one of the key tasks is the identification of homogeneous zones of intervention as a function of the solar energy potential and “criticity”, a combination of the socio ...

Elsevier2017

Illustrative Prospective of Solar Energy in Urban Planning: Collection of International Case Studies

Christian Roecker, Maria Cristina Munari Probst, Émilie Nault, Giuseppe Peronato, Pietro Florio

This reports presents a collection of 34 case studies on solar energy in urban planning, addressing how the planning process has been developed, how the stakeholders have been involved, which instruments have been applied, which energy technology and envir ...

IEA SHC Task 512017

State-of-the-Art of Education on Solar Energy in Urban Planning

Maria Cristina Munari Probst, Émilie Nault, Giuseppe Peronato, Pietro Florio

This report focuses on education in order to strengthen the knowledge and competence of relevant stakeholders in solar energy in urban planning. The core of this study is to create substantial links between research and education as well as between researc ...

IEA SHC Task 512017

Visibility of Building Exposed Surfaces for the Potential Application of Solar Panels: A Photometric Model

Christian Roecker, Jean-Louis Scartezzini, Maria Cristina Munari Probst, Pietro Florio

Urban areas are facing a growing deployment of solar technologies on the built exposed surfaces such as roofs and façades. This transformation often occurs without consideration of the needed architectural quality, which depends on the context sensitivity ...

F. Biljecki and V. Tourre2016

Innovative solar products for architectural integration: a joint Task 41 and Task 51 IEA website

Christian Roecker, Maria Cristina Munari Probst

2014

Urban acceptability of building integrated solar systems: LESO-QSV approach

Christian Roecker, Maria Cristina Munari Probst

The concern for sustainable development issues together with the new EU promotion policies are finally leading to a widespread use of Photovoltaic and Solar Thermal systems in buildings. This upcoming reality is opening a new debate on the urban/architectu ...

Universität Kassel2011

Building envelope and solar energy optimization: a new “wizard” for architects

Christian Roecker, Maria Cristina Munari Probst, Marja Edelman

When designing a project, architects are facing more and more constraints on the building’s energy efficiency. Tougher values on insulation and energy consumption are now often combined with compulsory implementation of active solar systems - photovoltaics ...

Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve2011

Architectural integration of solar thermal systems

Christian Roecker, Maria Cristina Munari Probst

The amount of solar energy reaching the Earth in one hour equals the total amount of primary energy used in the world during one year. Thanks to the different solar technologies presently available, most energy needs of buildings can today be covered by so ...

2010

Bringing colours to solar collectors: a contribution to an increased building "integrability"

Christian Roecker, Andreas Schueler, Maria Cristina Munari Probst

One main obstacle to facade integration of solar thermal collectors lies in the formal characteristics and low flexibility of available products. Major problems are the black and irregular appearance of their absorbers, their low dimensional flexibility an ...

Università luav di Venezia2010

Development of solar ventilated façade system for building energy retrofit

Christian Roecker, Maria Cristina Munari Probst, Alessia Giovanardi

In the perspective of setting ambitious targets for new buildings energy performance and of introducing new approaches to retrofit existing buildings, the implementation of solar thermal collectors into façade becomes very interesting Several research acti ...

2010

Barriers and Needs for Building Integration of Solar Thermal and Photovoltaics

Maria Cristina Munari Probst

The International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 41 is conducting an international survey concerning the integration of solar energy systems and architecture in order to identify barriers that architects are facing in incorporating active solar technologies in t ...

2010

Architectural integration and design of solar thermal systems

Maria Cristina Munari Probst

Although mature technologies at competitive prices are largely available, solar thermal is not yet playing the important role it deserves in the reduction of buildings fossil energy consumption. The generally low architectural quality characterizing existi ...

EPFL2009

Simulation Tool for Architects

Christian Roecker, Maria Cristina Munari Probst

The presented work offers an improved planning tool as a response to the demand for active and passive solar architecture. An integral solution is presented for the design of solar assisted heating systems and decentralized electricity production using pho ...

EFPL2009

Facade Integration of Solar Thermal Collectors: A Breakthrough?

Christian Roecker, Jean-Louis Scartezzini, Andreas Schueler, Estelle De Chambrier, Maria Cristina Munari Probst

One main barrier to the acceptability of façade use of solar thermal collectors is their black appearance and the visibility of piping or absorber irregularities through the glazing. To facilitate façade integration, a project was set up to develop selecti ...

2008

Nanostructured Coatings on Glazing for Active Solar Facades

Christian Roecker, Jean-Louis Scartezzini, Estelle De Chambrier, Josef Andreas Schuler, Maria Cristina Munari Probst, Dipanwita Dutta

Thin films on glazing play an important role in the design of solar energy conversion systems as thermal collectors or photovoltaic panels. Antireflective coatings based on porous silicon dioxide are well established in the field of solar collector glazing ...

EPFL2007

Towards an improved architectural quality of building integrated solar thermal systems (BIST)

Christian Roecker, Maria Cristina Munari Probst

Architectural integration is a major issue in the development and spreading of solar thermal technologies. Yet the architectural quality of most existing building integrated solar thermal systems (BIST) is quite poor, which often discourages potential new ...

2007

Facade Integration of Solar Thermal Collectors: Present and Future

Christian Roecker, Andreas Schueler, Estelle De Chambrier, Maria Cristina Munari Probst

Based on the results of a European survey on architectural integration quality, the paper presents a systematic analysis of the facade integration potential of solar thermal collectors provided by Swiss manufacturers, concentrating on glazed flat plates, u ...

EPFL2007