Page 61 - European Energy Innovation - winter 2017 publication

Winter 2017 European Energy Innovation
A key sector to be addressed – due
to its high energy consumption – is
the buildings sector, and we must
collectively agree on what to do with
our buildings and how to go about it.
For this, the setting of a vision for the
building stock for 2050 is essential as it
can act as a beacon for action, motivating To highlight a first, obvious, challenge: meaning that distruption to occupants
the creating of coherent strategies and
giving confidence to market actors
who will be the main drivers of change
in the intervening period.
The vision that I have for 2050 is a
building stock that is firstly highly
energy efficient, providing quality,
healthy environments for occupants
and that are resilient to the effects of
climate change.
Putting energy efficiency first will
lead to a dramatic reduction in the
overall energy demand of the building
stock. This means that supplying the
remaining energy demand will be
easier and more cost-effective. In fact,
it will be beneficial for the renewable
energy sector as a broader range
of renewable technologies can be
deployed to meet a reduced energy
demand and the share of renewable
sources in the overall energy mix
will increase more rapidly as energy
demand goes down.
But getting from where we are today
to the achievement of the Vision 2050
www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu
61
BUILDINGS
outlined here is truly challenging.
It will require a range of structural
changes in policy, in the construction
sector and in society at large and will
not be achieved without significant
innovation along the way.
How can we accelerate the energy
renovation rate of the building stock
in the EU whilst ensuring that all
renovations capture the full energy
savings potential tied up in our
buildings? In my view, this can be
significantly assisted by the adoption
and implementation of ambitious
energy renovation strategies in the
Member States. The preparation
of such strategies is already a
requirement under EU directives, but
their implementation is not – a situation reduce waste whilst increasing the
that may change in the coming months
as the EU provisions are under review
and the European Parliament has
tabled proposals that significantly
strengthen the requirements on
renovation strategies.
A second challenge to be faced is
how to increase the market uptake
and quality of energy renovations at
the same time. This challenge has
been taken up in the market and one
of the most successful and impressive
examples can be found in the
Netherlands, where the energiesprong
approach (also known as nul op de
meter) has been developed and rolled
out. It is an innovative approach
where customised pre-fabrication
of wall and roof elements with fully
integrated heating and ventilation
equipment, together with solar panels,
can be installed on-site in just one day,
is fully minimised.
An advantage of the Dutch approach
is that much of the work is carried
out in factory conditions, increasing
quality and making work in the
construction sector more attractive to
younger generations. It is an approach
that relies heavily on advances in
information and communication
technologies and in automated
fabrication, thus making it easier to
efficiency of resource use.
In conclusion, if we don’t set a 2050
Vision of a highly energy efficient
building stock and simultaneously start
to roll out new innovative approaches
to achieving that vision on the ground,
we will not achieve our collective 2050
climate goals and thus run the risk of
degrading the quality of life in the EU
for current and future generations. l