TOWARDS 2020 – NEARLY ZERO-ENERGY BUILDINGS

Context – why this Core Theme?

Photo of a prefabricated zero-heating energy house in Germany

Directive 2010/31/EU (EPBD recast) Article 9 requires that “Member States shall ensure that by 31 December 2020 all new buildings are nearly zero-energy buildings; and after 31 December 2018, new buildings occupied and owned by public authorities are nearly zero-energy buildings”. Member States shall furthermore “draw up national plans for increasing the number of nearly zero-energy buildings” and “following the leading example of the public sector, develop policies and take measures such as the setting of targets in order to stimulate the transformation of buildings that are refurbished into nearly zero-energy buildings”.

A nearly zero-energy building is defined in Article 2of the EPBD recast as “a building that has a very high energy performance. The nearly zero or very low amount of energy required should be covered to a very significant extent by energy from renewable sources, including energy from renewable sources produced on-site or nearby”.

Activities of this Core Theme

Photo of a net zero energy office building in Portugal

The specific EPBD Concerted Action activities around “Towards 2020 –Nearly zero-energy buildings” will support the Member States by theexchange of experiences with already existing high performance buildings (ranging from low energy buildings to passive houses, zero-energy and zero-emission buildings, and even to energy surplus houses).

The discussion topics include the most common building and service system solutions, calculation methods, promotional means, available subsidies and other incentives, supporting documents (e.g. guidelines), etc., as well as study tours to interact with experts at national administrations and visits to relevant sites.

The different national applications of the definition of nearly zero-energy buildings are presented and compared: front-runner countries receive a feedback and other countries gather inspiration for their own application.

Through such information exchange, Member States participants furthermore support each other in the development of the national plans for increasing the number of nearly zero-energy buildings.