The University of Calabria in Italy took some years to totally transform its energy infrastructure. But all the efforts have paid off. On the now green campus, energy bills are down and CO2 emissions have lowered. The dean of the university, Nicola Leone, gives us his insight on the transformation.
At the University of Calabria, work to change the campus's energy infrastructure was particularly important between 2014 and 2020. The energy project cost over 18 million euros and the campus got considerable funding from the European Cohesion Policy.
The new system includes the use of geothermal, photovoltaic and solar thermal energies which have helped reduce energy bills by hundreds of thousands of euros a year.
The university also uses an intelligent system of lighting. Some 33 000 remotely controlled LED lights illuminate its 96 buildings. This reduces CO2 emissions. The lights also use movement detectors and turn off when no one is inside the buildings or rooms to need them, therefore economising energy.
All these changes and the drive towards a green ecological campus is something that Nicola Leone, the dean of the university, speaks proudly
In an exclusive interview, he tells us that "Calabria is a difficult land, it's a disadvantaged region and the university wants to be a model, a model for contributing to development, a model for helping the socio-economic growth of the whole region. The university also wants to be sustainable. In recent years, we have invested a great deal into sustainable energy and we have been able to make the best use of funding from the European Commission, building the greenest campus in Italy".
To watch the full interview with Nicola Leone, Dean of the University of Calabria, click on the media player above.