The number 1 player in the ATP rankings, Rafael Nadal, continues to be unbeatable on his favorite surface, clay. He won his 5th consecutive title at the Barcelona Open, after beating another Spanish player, David Ferrer, in the final.
Now age 22, Rafael Nadal comes from winning the Monte Carlo tournament for a 5th consecutive time last week. He managed to do the same in Barcelona, winning in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5, against Ferrer.
The win in Barcelona gave Nadal his 35th ATP title in his career, among which 24 are on clay. The Barcelona Open has been won, for the last 7 consecutive years, only by Spanish player.
Nadal will now move on to the Masters tournament in Rome, which starts today, a tournament which is the perfect preparation for Roland Garros 2009, where Nadal has to be the big favorite. Last year, Nadal was beaten in the first round of the tournament in Rome by the Spanish player Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Starting with 2019, all the new buildings that will be built in the European Union will have to produce the same amount of energy which they consume. At the end of last week, the European Parlament voted that the deadline for achieving this is 2019. For public building, this deadline is 2016.
A quarter of all the buildings in the EU are from the first half of the 20th century. The poll was actually an addition to a previous law that concerned the buildings’ energy efficiency. The new standards of energy efficiency will be applied to all the restorated buildings as well, not only to those having a surface of over 1,000 square meters, like the previous law stated.
This new addition is very important because a great part of European buildings is represented by already existing buildings, among which 25% have been built before 1945.
In Europe, energy consumption of buildings represents 40% of the total, out of which 36% is emissions producting energy. A great deal of this energy can be saved by using more performant insulation, heating and cooling systems, by using double windows, economical lighting, etc.
