BPIE: Europe's buildings under the microscope - PU Europe

With respect to the demand side, Latvia highlighted the complex estate administration of privatised
apartment buildings. It noted that there was an unequal ability of owners to pay for renovations and
some groups (e.g. pensioners) showed no interest in investment. Latvia also noted that the European
standards for building energy efficiency have been adopted more slowly than planned and that those
standards were not adapted to national needs. Because of the delays, no common software for building
energy efficiency calculations for designers and engineers was available. Slovenia pointed out that
scattered ownership in apartment buildings (with privatisation only taking place in the 1990s) raised
many organisational barriers where there must be a 75% consensus in multi-owned buildings for
undertaking technical improvements. This leads to complex protocols and the lack of consensus. There
can also be institutional barriers in the public sector using energy service companies. This was raised by
Slovenia but is a problem in several other countries.
Structural
Evidence from Belgium illustrates a dilemma that is probably found in several other Member States. The
main barrier identified by our analysis of the Belgian responses is the age of the building stock because
of a low demolition rate. As the average age of Belgium’s building stock is forecast to increase further
than that of European counterparts in the next 25 years, the relative energy efficiency of the building
stock is also likely to decrease. The analysis goes on to state that the high upfront cost and the annual cap
on most incentives have the consequence that the refurbishments are spread over a long time period,
which is a barrier to improving energy efficiency. Because of the age of buildings, the landlord-tenant
dilemma makes it difficult to ameliorate the existing building stock. Many of the new Member States
from Eastern Europe have a legacy of poor quality “panel” buildings from the 1960s and 1970s that need
serious upgrading.
Multi-stakeholder issues
Various barriers exist where there are multiple owners and/or occupiers of buildings. Ownership and
responsibility can be opaque, while it can be very difficult to agree on energy saving investments in
multi-family residential buildings if many different property owners have to either approve a decision or
make a financial contribution.
III. Awareness, advice and skills barriers
There are many barriers relating to awareness, information and technical expertise. This was the second
most identified barrier category, with 15 of 26 countries giving this a high priority (amongst the top three).
Undoubtedly, for the market to work well, correct and appropriate information is essential. Ambitious
renovations comprise a major decision which can only work if the right energy advice to take action is
available and that the energy efficiency service industries are capable of delivering those measures and
ultimately that sufficient satisfaction levels can be guaranteed for the consumer. Current ESCO companies
are not designed to deliver deep renovations where the complex process, small project size and multistakeholder
involvement discourage ESCOs from having a real interest in deep renovation projects.
Without the right combination of necessary conditions, the consumer may only choose to undertake
renovation measures when it is absolutely necessary, as is the case for the replacement of equipment
when it breaks down. There were many observations in the survey about consumers not taking action
and not being interested. Not being interested is a complex issue and generally takes more investigation
to fully understand the consumer’s motivation (or lack of motivation).
58 | Europe’s buildings under the microscope