The lack of the overall understanding of the impact of energy-efficient investments has made it difficult for policymakers to integrate it into their policymaking process. There is a need to gather evidence on the benefit of energy efficiency in ecological and socio-economic terms.
These are the challenges that EERAdata will address over the next three years with the help of academics and experts throughout Europe.
EERAdata is a new EU funded climate change initiative that will work with several municipalities to identify old building stock that can be upgraded to be more energy efficient.
The project encourages local authorities not to rule out the renovation of old building stock – thus transforming regions and municipalities towards a sustainable and energy-efficient future.
Partners will work with 3 pilot local authorities, the City of Copenhagen in Denmark, the Municipality of Velenje in Slovenia, and the Andalusian Energy Agency in Spain to create a decision-making tool that will identify older building stock that could be upgraded to be more energy efficient.
The team behind EERAdata will access the technical and socio-economical information across the relevant sector to develop the appropriate methodology and data analysis framework to plan and compare investment and impact in Energy Efficient Buildings.
This data and information will then be used to create a user-friendly tool that will enable policymakers to plan and prioritise EE Investment.
The project co-ordinator Sebastian Botzler, Institute of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Design and Building, Technical University Munich said:
“Deep building renovation is providing greener, healthier, more valuable and climate friendlier buildings for all of us. EERAdata is setting the frameworks for it. Scientists, municipalities, and whole regions from all over Europe are developing the tools and methodologies to collect the necessary data, to assess the data with socio-economic indicators and finally steer a sustainable transformation of our urban building stock.”
The specific objectives of the project are:
- To build a decision-support tool (DST) enabling regional/municipal policy-makers to plan and prioritise EE investments in buildings based on a holistic assessment of their building data. In focus: multiple benefits.
- To enable public authorities and energy agencies at regional and municipal levels to access, collect and integrate building stock data from various sources and formats into a coherent digital model of the building stock to support an effective assessment of EE investments.
- To operationalise the Energy Efficiency First principle by assessing and quantifying relevant technical, economic, socio-economic and environmental variables, indicators and impacts across relevant sectors and markets that influence the building renovation action.
- To develop an appropriate methodology and reliable data analysis framework to plan and assess EE investments in buildings and compare their impact against supply-side investments in additional energy generation and imports.
The Kick-off meeting took place in Malaga, Spain on July 2019 and it provided the perfect opportunity for representatives from partners to meet, share information and plan their work for the next two and a half years.
The work will be undertaken in collaboration with partners situated in 6 different locations across Europe. A mix of academic and business expertise will contribute towards the project including;
- Technische Universität München
- ITTI Poland,
- Trilateral Research
- Technical University Denmark
- KSSENA
- Andalusian Energy Agency
- KØBENHAVNS KOMMUNE
- MESTINA OBCINA VELENJE
- Colegio Oficial De Arquitectos De Málaga.
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 847101