Towards Nearly Zero Energy Buildings in Europe: A Focus on Retrofit in Non-Residential Buildings

Delia D’Agostino, Paolo Zangheri and Luca Castellazzi
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Delia D’Agostino: Energy, Transport and Climate Institute, Joint Research Centre (JRC)—European Commission, 21027 Ispra (VA), Italy
Paolo Zangheri: Energy, Transport and Climate Institute, Joint Research Centre (JRC)—European Commission, 21027 Ispra (VA), Italy
Luca Castellazzi: Energy, Transport and Climate Institute, Joint Research Centre (JRC)—European Commission, 21027 Ispra (VA), Italy

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Buildings are the focus of European (EU) policies aimed at a sustainable and competitive low-carbon economy by 2020. Reducing energy consumption of existing buildings and achieving nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs) are the core of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and the recast of the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD). To comply with these requirements, Member States have to adopt actions to exploit energy savings from the building sector. This paper describes the differences between deep, major and NZEB renovation and then it provides an overview of best practice policies and measures to target retrofit and investment related to non-residential buildings. Energy requirements defined by Member States for NZEB levels are reported comparing both new and existing residential and non-residential buildings. The paper shows how the attention given to refurbishment of NZEBs increased over the last decade, but the achievement of a comprehensive implementation of retrofit remains one of main challenges that Europe is facing.

Keywords: nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs); retrofit; energy policy; non-residential buildings; energy requirements (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

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