Energy policy adjustments for building renovation in growing and shrinking cities

To mitigate climate change, buildings need to cut down on energy consumption drastically. The necessary technologies exist, and energy policy seeks to encourage building owners to implement appropriate measures. However, the policy instruments and their current designs fail to put buildings on a climate saving track. In recognition of the tremendous barriers, as the long cycles for retrofit and the substantial investments, this dissertation elicits the possibility to attach measures to a given megatrend: the growth of cities. What are the factors that influence the energy demand aside from the sheer growth? Is it possible to employ them to achieve more efficient investments and higher energy savings? This dissertation delivers the amplitude of migration’s influence on energy demand and why it is not proportional to population growth. It further reveals the migration-related factors that drive energy demand and discusses them as triggers for potential policy adoption. The impact of such policy instruments is quantified and shows more energy can be saved at the same level of investment when considering migration processes

Energy policy adjustments for building renovation in growing and shrinking cities

To mitigate climate change, buildings need to cut down on energy consumption drastically. The necessary technologies exist, and energy policy seeks to encourage building owners to implement appropriate measures. However, the policy instruments and their current designs fail to put buildings on a climate saving track. In recognition of the tremendous barriers, as the long cycles for retrofit and the substantial investments, this dissertation elicits the possibility to attach measures to a given megatrend: the growth of cities. What are the factors that influence the energy demand aside from the sheer growth? Is it possible to employ them to achieve more efficient investments and higher energy savings? This dissertation delivers the amplitude of migration’s influence on energy demand and why it is not proportional to population growth. It further reveals the migration-related factors that drive energy demand and discusses them as triggers for potential policy adoption. The impact of such policy instruments is quantified and shows more energy can be saved at the same level of investment when considering migration processes

The macroeconomic effects of ambitious energy efficiency policy in Germany - Combining bottom-up energy modelling with a non-equilibrium macroeconomic model

Energy efficiency is one of the fastest and most cost-effective contributions to a sustainable, secure and affordable energy system. Furthermore, the so-called “non-energy benefits”, “co-benefits” or “multiple benefits” of energy efficiency are receiving increased interest from policy makers and the scientific community. Among the various non-energy benefits of energy efficiency initiatives, the macroeconomic benefits play an important role. Our study presents a detailed analysis of the long-term macroeconomic effects of German energy efficiency policy including the industry and service sectors as well as residential energy demand. We quantify the macroeconomic effects of an ambitious energy efficiency scenario by combining bottom-up models with an extended dynamic input-output model. We study sectoral shifts within the economy regarding value added and employment compared to the baseline scenario. We provide an in-depth analysis of the effects of energy efficiency policy on consumers, individual industry sectors, and the economy as a whole. We find significant positive macroeconomic effects resulting from energy efficiency initiatives, with growth effects for both GDP and employment ranging between 0.88% and 3.38%. Differences in sectoral gains lead to a shift in the economy. Our methodological approach provides a comprehensive framework for analyzing the macroeconomic benefits of energy efficiency

Financing the energy efficient transformation of the building sector in the EU

This publication presents and analyses the policies implemented in the building sector in the European Union, its Member States and Croatia and Norway. It mainly relies on the MURE database with policy measures on energy efficiency, covering all EU countries plus Croatia and Norway and also includes the quantitative impact of the measures (www.muredatabase.com). The tool can be used to support energy policy formulation by the European Commission, e.g. as part of the monitoring and evaluation of the National Energy Efficiency Actions Plans submitted under the Directives on End-use Energy Efficiency and Energy Services (ESD) and under the new Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). This brochure, while providing a general view on energy efficiency policies in the buildings sector, focuses on important issues and questions of energy policies directed towards financing the energy efficient transformation of the built environment

What drives the impact of future support policies for energy efficiency in buildings?

Policy makers face the challenge to design and test support policies for nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB) – and in general energy efficiency policies – in a real-life laboratory. Model based scenarios are expected to reduce the uncertainties. However, rather than trying to exactly predict the future or the impact of a certain instrument, the core objective is to understand the drivers affecting the impact of policies on future energy demand in buildings. We will draw nearer to this objective by a comparative analysis of policy scenarios in 9 EU Member States (MSs) and EU-28 as a whole. Thus, the key research questions of this paper are: (1) What impact on energy demand, CO2-emissions and public costs do various policies trigger in scenarios for EU MSs and the EU-28? (2) What drives the differences between the scenarios in various countries and policy settings? (3) How do the policies compare in terms of their consistency with long-term targets of energy savings and CO2-reductions? We build this research on three policy sets which were developed in the IEE project ENTRANZE in a discussion process with policy makers: one policy set reflecting current policy instruments and two others with more innovative and ambitious approaches. The potential effect of these policy sets was analysed with the bottom-up model Invert/EE-Lab. The model is based on a disaggregated description of the building stock, and its building and HVAC components. The investment decision for various retrofit measures and HVAC systems is modelled under consideration of the characteristics of various country specific agent groups (e.g. low-income households, elderly people, ownership types etc). The results show a wide range of energy savings for space heating, hot water, cooling and lighting of less than 10% to more than 30% from 2008-2030. Remarkably, the highest energy savings were not achieved in those scenarios and countries with the highest public expenses. It turns out that at least a minimum level of regulatory measures increasing ”nZEB renovation” activities and renewable heating (RES-H) systems should be added to economic incentives and strong supply – side measure

Short term policy strategies and long term targets: The case of the German building sector

The German government set targets for the reduction of heating energy demand in buildings (-20% of space heating energy need 2008-2020) as well as for the share of renewables in the overall heatsector (14% by 2020). In addition, long-term visions up to 2050 exist. The research questions of this paper are: (1) How can different policies affect space heating and hot water energy demand in Germany by 2020? (2) To which extent are these short-term policy interventions consistent with longterm targets? We use Invert/EE-Lab for modelling the German residential and non-residential building sector. The model takes into account barriers and investment decision patterns for the uptake of renovation measures and the investment in different types of heating, hot water and cooling technologies. More than 60 short-term scenarios until 2020 are simulated with different policy design options and energy price levels. They serve as a starting point for simulating a smaller number of scenarios until 2050. The short-term scenarios show that with ambitious policy design final energy demand in the German building sector for heating, hot water and cooling could decrease by about 16% from 2008 until 2020 (i.e. below 680 TWh in 2020 compared to 808 TWh in 2008), GHG emissions could decrease by more than 50% and the renewable share could more than double. Though, this may seem promising, the long-term scenarios indicate that most of the short-term scenarios do not prepare the ground for really ambitious energy efficiency and climate mitigation targets of the building sector in 2050

Rationelle Energieverwendung

Die deutsche Energiepolitik wird weiterhin wesentlich von der Umsetzung der Energiewende und den sich daraus ergebenden Herausforderungen bestimmt. Durch die Wahlen zum 18. Deutschen Bundestag und die anschließende Bildung einer neuen Bundesregierung wurden Ende des Jahres 2013 die Weichen für die zukünftige Entwicklung gestellt. Verschiedene Maßnahmen und ein Bekenntnis zu mehr Energieeffizienz haben dabei auch Eingang in den Koalitionsvertrag gefunden. In zentralen Fragen wie der Umsetzung der Energieeffizienzrichtlinie oder der Höhe der Mittel für den nationalen Aktionsplan Energieeffizienz steht eine feste Positionierung der Bundesregierung allerdings noch aus. Auf europäischer Ebene ist aktuell das energie- und klimapolitische Zielsystem für das Jahr 2030 in der Diskussion. Ein eigenständiges Ziel für Energieeffizienz ist dabei im aktuellen Entwurf der Kommission nicht vorgesehen, das Ziel für Erneuerbare ist nur noch indikativ. Diese aus Sicht der Energieeffizienz bedenkliche Entwicklung kann sich aber im weiteren Verlauf der Gesetzgebung noch ändern

Auf dem Weg zum Niedrigstenergiegebäudestandard. Tools für politische Entscheidungsträger: ENTRANZE (Policies to enforce the transition to nearly Zero Energy Buildings in the EU-28) project

Ein Gebäudebestand mit sehr niedrigem Energieverbrauch ist in der EU möglich. ENTRANZE1 entwickelte ein "Politiklabor", um die möglichen Auswirkungen von nationalen Strategien und Maßnahmen für Gebäude, die dieses Ziel erreichen, weiterzu-entwickeln und zu analysieren. Der Kern von ENTRANZE war es, die politischen Entscheidungsträger bei der Entwicklung integrierter, effektiver und effizienter Maßnah-menpakete, die eine schnelle und starke Verbreitung von Niedrigstenergiegebäuden (NZEB ) und erneuerbaren Heiz- und Kühltechnologien (RES H / C) erlauben, zu unterstützen. Dies geschah mit einem Schwerpunkt auf der Sanierung bestehender Gebäude. Dieser Bericht gibt einen Überblick über die Maßnahmen und die Ergebnisse von ENTRANZE. Das Projekt umfasst alle 28 Staaten der Europäischen Union. Allerdings wurden nicht alle Untersuchungen im gleichen Umfang für alle Mitgliedstaaten (MS) durchgeführt. Die wichtigsten Zielländer (Österreich, Bulgarien, Tschechische Republik, Finnland, Frankreich, Deutschland, Italien, Rumänien, Spanien) decken mehr als 60% des Gebäudebestands und alle wichtigen Klimaregionen der EU ab