Page 28 - European Energy Innovation - winter 2018 publication

28 Winter 2018 European Energy Innovation

BUILDING EFFICIENCY

Realising the clean energy
revolution in the existing
building stock

By Stijn Verbeke, Senior researcher at the EnergyVille/VITO research institute on sustainable
energy and intelligent energy systems
The existing building stock
plays a pivotal role in around 40% of our energy consumed mobility needs and the related energy
transforming our society in buildings, the construction sector consumption.
towards a low-carbon is an important energy consumer in
itself, and indirectly, the layout of the The European Energy Performance

and clean energy future. Not only is built environment also greatly affects of Buildings Directive (EPBD) has

set the legal framework to limit

Figure 1: Urban energy scenario for the city of Roeselare (BE), City-zen the operational energy demand
Roadshow, 2018 of buildings. EU member states
Image credits QUBelfast, Th!nkE, TUDelft, UCLAN, USiena, VITO. City-zen is have implemented regulations on
a project funded under the FP7 program of the European Commission improving the energy performance
characteristics, reaching the

nationally defined thresholds of

‘nearly zero energy buildings’ for

newly constructed buildings from

2021 onwards. Given the long service

life and low replacement rates of

buildings, the predominantly poor

energy performance of the existing

building stock remains a major

challenge. The EPBD requires issuing

energy performance certificates for

buildings being rented or sold and

demands individual member states

to develop long-term renovation

strategies. These provisions focus

mainly on informing and motivating

consumers, rather than setting strict

performance requirements, except for

specific major upgrades of buildings.

A crucial accelerator to effectively
realize the large untapped energy
efficiency potential of the existing
building stock is to be found in
coordinating building retrofit actions
at the scale of districts or cities.
Firstly, actions at this higher scale
level can unlock economies of scale.
Furthermore, upscaled actions can
allow for an optimal application of
resources and introduce additional
technical solutions complementary

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