Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INNOVATE (Integrated solutioNs for ambitiOus energy refurbishment of priVATE housing)

Teaser

A growing number of European cities and regions share the vision of a low energy city with a high quality of life for all. They voluntarily commit to ambitious energy and climate objectives and design local sustainable energy policies, strategies and action plans that guide...

Summary

A growing number of European cities and regions share the vision of a low energy city with a high quality of life for all. They voluntarily commit to ambitious energy and climate objectives and design local sustainable energy policies, strategies and action plans that guide their energy transition.
On average, the largest energy consumers in a city are residential buildings (37%). There is a huge potential for achieving energy savings and CO2 reductions in the residential sector.
However, it is not the easiest sector to deal with. First, it is not under the direct responsibility of local and regional authorities. Second, it faces a very complex set of non-financial barriers which include: citizens’ low awareness of the benefits of energy retrofits; competing household priorities; and a lack of skills to carry out high quality global refurbishment with guaranteed energy savings.
Moreover, energy renovation of residential buildings involves a myriad of market actors (construction companies, craftsmen, real estate agencies, etc.) who are not organised and coordinated to be able to offer an easy, global and guaranteed energy saving solution to homeowners.
These non-financial barriers interact with an important financial barrier. Financing the energy retrofitting of buildings is a great challenge. With investments ranging from €200 to €1,200 /m² (CITYnvest study, 2015), access to attractive and long-term financing is perceived as the primary barrier to carrying out ambitious energy retrofits, in particular those aiming at achieving 50-75% energy savings.
Such a non-exhaustive list of barriers would dissuade many from taking action. However, more and more local and regional authorities are taking up the challenge! And they are actually in the most favourable position to do so as they know the best energy sources, people and buildings in their territories. Moreover, they are perceived as trusted and legitimate coordinators of housing retrofit programmes by homeowners and market actors.
Ideally, all services and incentives related to energy retrofits should be provided by a one-stop-shop as to make the renovation easy and attractive for homeowners. Such a one-stop-shop package should include:
• Development of products adapted to consumers’ concerns
• Targeted marketing & communication
• Independent advisors who accompany homeowners through the renovation process from A to Z and guarantee its high quality at each stage: information > preparation > financing > implementation > monitoring of results.
• Coordination of a chain of suppliers and contractors to deliver a global high quality solution to homeowners
• Long-term and affordable financing.
In particular, developing a long term and low interest financial product is a key lever of such a service, as it has a positive impact on homeowners’ ability and willingness to pay for the advisory work, which has to be performed in order to deliver quality retrofits.
These tasks may be carried out by local and regional authorities or they can be delegated to public, private or mixed (public-private) operators. Today, only few such one-stop-shops exist.
The main objective of the INNOVATE project is to develop and roll-out integrated energy efficiency service packages in 11 target territories.

Work performed

INNOVATE project specific objectives (O) and the progress done towards these objectives are summarised here below:
O1: Identify the enabling conditions and EU best practices of local / regional operators who provide Energy Efficiency (EE) service packages including access to long-term financing to homeowners, while targeting very ambitious energy savings.
Progress: Energies Demain – an experienced finance expert who has also been supporting French pioneering local authorities in the launch of ambitious energy renovations programmes – has compiled an “Inventory of best practices for setting up an integrated energy efficiency service package including access to long-term financing to homeowners” (D1.1).
The “Inventory” goes through all the different steps of the customer journey offered by the one-stop-shops from the initial building inspection and energy analysis, over the proposition of a financing plan, all the way to the follow-up once the works are completed. Each step is illustrated by practical examples which further complement ten detailed case studies (benchmarks).
O2: Carry out a market gap analysis identifying the type of EE services and financial support that is the most appropriate for homeowners and propose a development plan for each target territory.
Progress: All 11 target territories have developed a market gap analysis (MGA) for their target territory (D2.1). One of the main finding of the MGAs is that the results are very specific for each territory and significant differences may exist between local authorities within the same country.
The MGAs then led into the local development plans (LDPs) which actually offer different scenarios of how the integrated EE service package / OSS could function (D2.2). These were discussed with local decision makers and stakeholders, adapted and fine-tuned, and finally resulted in the pilot business model to be tested in the target territories.
O3: Develop and roll-out integrated EE service packages in the target territories
Progress: All 11 target territories have developed a business model for the OSS that will offer integrated EE service package to homeowners (D2.3).
O4:Identify solutions to remove legal, financial, technical and organisational barriers hindering the implementation of the integrated energy efficiency service packages.
Progress: From the project start, we have identified the solutions and recommendations for removing a set of barriers. These are partly formulated in the Inventory of best practices and communicated through a number of EU-wide and national events.
O5: Build capacities, disseminate and communicate the project results.
>More than 3000 stakeholders have already been reached by EU and national communication and dissemination activities.

Final results

90 pilot buildings refurbished
Total primary energy savings of 5.075 GWh/year
Investments triggered of 36.88 M EUR.
Min. 3825 stakeholders from the public, private and financial sectors capable to widely replicate the concept of local / regional operators offering integrated EE services and access to long-term financing throughout the European Union.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.financingbuildingrenovation.eu/.