Ranking technical options as a means to foster more sustainable energy use in public buildings

Energy dependence and an increasing concern with climate change are currently major challenges faced by European Union (EU) countries. Implementing Energy Efficiency (EE) measures and Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are... [ view full abstract ]

Energy dependence and an increasing concern with climate change are currently major challenges faced by European Union (EU) countries. Implementing Energy Efficiency (EE) measures and Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are privileged approaches to contribute to reduce both EU energy consumption and climate vulnerability while contributing to implement the Sustainable Development Goals 7 - Affordable and clean energy and 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. However, the implementation of EE measures and RES options in Municipal Public Buildings (MPBs) is hampered not only by a general lack of financial resources, but also by an insufficient knowledge of public authorities on the buildings’ features and consumption, as well as on the potentially most effective options to improve their energy performance. One of the challenges for making the public building sector more sustainable is to be able to develop solutions adapted to various regional contexts, level of urbanization of the area, availability of energy resources and types of buildings. Moreover, publics buildings with different usage, (i.e. swimming pools, health centres, sports centre, schools, office buildings) have associated different energy services (e.g. space heating and cooling, water heating, lighting, other electric equipment) and consumption profiles. Public authorities have to manage varied building stocks and thus need to enhance their institutional capacity in the field of EE and use of RES to contribute to the Energy Performance of Buildings and the Energy Efficiency EU Directives. The PrioritEE project, funded by the Interreg MED programme, aims at strengthening the capacities of public administrations in selecting and implementing efficient and cost-effective energy solutions in their public building stock. This work describes the Excel based Decision Support Tool (DST) under development for the ranking and selection of measures for improving EE and increasing RES adoption in MPBs. The tool is being co-developed, validated and tested by local public authorities and professional institutions from five country pilots with the aim of reducing energy consumption and prioritize EE investments. The pilots are located in regions with significant climatic differences: Potenza, Italy (HDD=1762); Leziria do Tejo, Portugal (HDD=893); Teruel, Spain (HDD=1725); West Macedonia, Greece (2508) and Karlovac, Croatia (2364); allowing to test the DST in different European contexts. A comprehensive set of key performance indicators is an integral part of the DST and will be used to compare different scenarios of interventions and monitor energy consumption, assessing the effects of the proposed strategies. The DST components, namely its main features (e.g. analytical database), building typologies and energy services addressed, as well as the results obtained to over 100 MPBs within the five pilot regions will be discussed as a ranking per investment (total, per user, per m², payback period), and energy savings (total, per user, per m²), among others. Moreover, a focus on how results are being used by local public authorities will be presented, evaluating the DST transferability to other countries, cities and regions.