Page 58 - European Energy Innovation - winter 2017 publication
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58 Winter 2017 European Energy Innovation
DATA FOR BUILDING EFFICIENCY
© Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
different aspects including energy establish a robust and durable return THE STEPS FORWARD
efficiency levels in buildings at country of knowledge mechanism collecting The initiatives named above show
and EU level, financing possibilities actual energy performance data. that the EU is taking steps in the right
for renovation and energy poverty ExcEED provides information to direction. At the same time, the gaps in
levels across the EU. The Buildings different players, bringing added the data collection process prevent a
Observatory managed to gather data value in different fields. For example, smoother and faster transition to more
from various sources, like EU projects, designers can test their work with efficient buildings, because of biased,
national statistics, EPC databases, regards to a possible performance gap, incomplete or unavailable data.
cities’ sustainable energy action plans, energy managers can have a better
and industry data. With the multiple overview on the overall building and its Other steps forward are therefore
sources implemented, the Building energy efficiency, while policy makers needed. Further technical progress in
Stock Observatory allows for a neutral can better guide their work with geo- the field of ICT is extremely helpful.
point of view on data gathering localised information. Publicly accessible central databases
reducing the risk of biased data or to collect information and redistribute
false information. The database will gather and categorise statistical data should be made available.
diverse data coming from different The aggregated data should also be
…AND A EUROPEAN PROJECT WITH sources, including building monitoring anonymous, in order to comply with the
A KNOWLEDGE DATABASE systems, projects, building managers, EU data protection requirements.
While the Buildings Observatory public authorities, other European
contains data on a wide range databases. The innovation lies in the To provide much needed data and help
of buildings, the Exceed project fact that part of the information will be increase transparency on the use of
focuses on a specific category: gathered from Indoor Environmental public funding, these central databases
newly constructed buildings. The Quality (IEQ) surveys, developed by the should be also filled with information
“European Energy Efficient building projects itself to integrate the point of coming from Energy Performance
district Database” promises to view of the occupants. Certificates and all publicly funded
projects. To do so, EU legislation
EU Building Stock Observatory should require every Member State
to establish a national database for
registering EPCs.
With a smoother and easier process
of data collection, coming from the
establishment of central, public
and reliable databases, the projects
dedicated to making the building
stock in the EU more efficient could
accelerate and therefore proliferate.
In particular, the creation of a publicly
available EU database collating
anonymised national data would help
the European Union to better assess
the situation of the building stock and
take proper action to reach its local and
global energy climate targets. ●
www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu
