Energy refurbishment of the housing stock is needed in order to reduce energy consumption and meet global climate goals. This is even more necessary for social housing built in Spain in the middle of the last century since its obsolete energy conditions lead to situations of indoor thermal discomfort and energy poverty. The present study carries out a life cycle assessment of the energy and economic performance of roofs after being retrofitted to become cool roofs for the promotion of social housing in Seville (Spain). Dynamic simulations are made in which the time dependent aging effect on the energy performance of the refurbished cool roofs is included for the whole lifespan. The influence of the time dependent aging effect on the results of the life cycle economic analysis is also assessed. A variety of scenarios are considered in order to account for the aging effect in the energy performance of the retrofitted cool roofs and its incidence while considering different energy prices and monetary discount rates on the life cycle assessment. This is made through a dynamic life cycle assessment in order to capture the impact of the aging dynamic behavior correctly. Results point out significant savings in the operational energy. However, important differences are found in the economic savings when the life cycle analysis is carried out since the source of energy and the efficiency of the equipment used for conditioning strongly impact the economic results.

Social housing built in the middle of the last century in Spain suffers from poor thermal insulation conditions that cause situations of discomfort and energy poverty. For this reason, the energetic refurbishment of the envelope of this social building stock is necessary to overcome these situations and reduce energy consumption aimed at achieving interior comfort for its occupants. The goal of this work is to optimize a constructive solution that combines cool roof techniques with the use of thermal insulation applied to the refurbishment of the roof of buildings belonging to a quarter of social housing in Seville, Spain. The optimization analysis is based on the computation of the energy performance of the roofs when the energy retrofitting measure is applied, considering a variety of combinations of solar reflective coatings and insulation layer thickness, performing a dynamic analysis that accounts for the aging effect of the cool coats on the monthly roof energy performance and on the economic balance for the whole life cycle (LC) span. Economic and energy optimization analysis show that a suitable combination of cool roof emissivity and insulation layer thickness produces significant savings in the operational energy and in the economic profitability of the proposed retrofitting measure: the optimum combination obtained provides for the entire life cycle timespan an energy savings of 5.71 GJ/m${}^2$ and a cost savings equivalent to the $63.1\%$ of the total costs when compared to the non-refurbished roof. The application of a time-dependent pattern for the changes on time produced by the aging effect on the cool roof emissivity, and its effects on the optimization of the combination of cool roof and insulation layer, can be considered novel in literature, both from an energy and an economic point of view.

1960s Europe saw a large number of residential neighborhoods built to house those migrating from the countryside. Today, more than 50 years later, these neighborhoods suffer high levels of functional, social, and technical obsolescence. In response to this, the University of Seville developed the Aura Strategy as an intervention methodology to find global solutions to issues in outdated neighborhoods. To provide visibility to this aspect of the Aura Strategy, the retrofit proposal presented in this article provides a solution to improve the roofing of buildings in a case study neighborhood (Polígono de San Pablo, Seville) and an analysis of the results in terms of energy and financial savings for local residents. The results show that for a population of roughly 18,000 (in 2018), net savings, including energy and retrofitting costs, ranging from nearly €$6.5$ to over €$8.6$ million can be made over the 20-year life-cycle span. Likewise, the results obtained on the reduction of thermal loads indicate a 72% decrease in energy consumption, equivalent to a saving of close to 4500 tons of greenhouse gas emissions for the district and the entire life-cycle time period, with the consequent benefits on the impact on air quality and the fight against climate change.

This paper describes the monetary policy of the European Central Bank since the birth of the Euro. The different economic situations and the monetary policies implemented during the mandate of each one of the three ECB presidents are analysed as a process of evolution. We study the situations of cyclical asynchrony together with the response given to it by the European monetary authority. We also assess the change experienced by the main economic indicators of the twelve founding countries during the 20 years of the single currency. The main conclusion obtained is that monetary policy has evolved from the strict approach defined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to an approach closer to that of the rest of central banks, which we have called “monetary realpolitik”.