Long - Term Renovation Strategies, Energy Voluntary Certification Scheme and Building Renovation Passport: an overview on Energy Performance Certification tools for the European Building stock

Abstract

The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2018/844 has huge potential for efficiency gains in the EU building sector, including measures that should accelerate the rate of building renovation towards more energy efficient systems. Under the 2010 EPBD, all EU countries have established independent energy performance certification systems supported by independent mechanisms of control and verification. However, current practices and tools of energy performance assessment and certification applied across Europe face several challenges. The paper presents an overview on researches and tools for the European building stock renovation process with the goal to highlight barriers, limits and benefits to increase the energy renovation rate. The main focus is to clarify the energy performance assessment and process for the certification and the introduction of the Building Renovation Passport, considering the novelty introduced by latest regulations and standards.

Energy Retrofit in European Building Portfolios: A Review of Five Key Aspects

“…Article [6, [84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91] Conference paper [92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105] [ [106][107][108][109][110][111][112] Review [113][114][115][116][117] After every publication in Table 1 was accurately analyzed, it demonstrates that the methodologies employed are rather heterogeneous, and sometimes they even show conflicting results. Hardly any research proposes a comprehensive study, covering all the aspects that should be considered, from the early audits to the final decision-making processes.…”

“…Since one of the major problems when performing statistical analyses to forecast energy consumption in building stocks is the collection of an appropriate database to perform statistical inference, several publications discussed possible solutions: many authors have stressed the need to improve and share knowledge about energy consumption patterns at a European level, and create common databases with uniform information, as discussed in [46,56]. In [110] the authors assessed various energy certification approaches, both mandatory and voluntary, and their potential applications in the energy efficient renovation of buildings portfolios. In [107], the authors performed a statistical analysis on approximately 6000 energy performance certificates of the Swiss residential building stock.…”

Barriers and challenges of the recommendation list of measures under the EPBD scheme: A critical review

“…The implementation of BRP can be seen in Belgium (Flanders), Denmark, France, Finland and Germany. Their results are showing that deep and high renovation rates are possible [22]. However, most of the implementations are not linked with the certification system, since these initiatives are provided by different organizations, though in some cases, as in Germany, they are subsidized by the state [23].…”

TAIL, a new scheme for rating indoor environmental quality in offices and hotels undergoing deep energy renovation (EU ALDREN project)

“…Despite these high ambitions and good intentions, the implementation of EPBD failed somewhat concerning renovation of the existing building stock. Renovation rates that followed EPBD recommendations have not exceeded 1% to 2% [49], although it is estimated that renovation accounts for 57% of all construction activity, and many renovations do not reach the full amount of energy savings that could be achieved [41]. Renovation rates following EPBD recommendations should reach at least 3% to guarantee that minimum energy reduction goals will be met [41].…”

“…Renovation rates that followed EPBD recommendations have not exceeded 1% to 2% [49], although it is estimated that renovation accounts for 57% of all construction activity, and many renovations do not reach the full amount of energy savings that could be achieved [41]. Renovation rates following EPBD recommendations should reach at least 3% to guarantee that minimum energy reduction goals will be met [41]. One reason for this shortfall could be that renovations, even those leading to reductions in energy use, have not been sufficiently economically attractive because of the costs involved and the subsequently long pay-back times.…”