PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Existing European building stock has a large potential for energy performance improvement, especially in colder regions.
The strategy “A Renovation Wave for Europe – Greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives" was published in 2020 and aims to double the rate of building renovation in the EU, from 1% to at least 2% annually, by the end of this decade.
In Estonia, even faster rates of renovation are required because of inefficient construction quality and energy performance of old buildings and due to a large renovation deficit. Estonia’s long-term building renovation strategy (LTRS) was developed according to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive with the aim of providing a strategical plan for transforming all the existing buildings into highly energy efficient and low carbon buildings by 2050
OBJECTIVES
The long-term objective of the LIFE IP BUILDEST project is to increase the ambition, and pave the way for reducing CO₂ emissions, of Estonia’s existing building stock by up to 100% (~4.5 million tCO₂/yr) by 2050. In the short-term, the project aims to pursue the 2030 goal of reducing the CO2 emissions by 32% (~1.4 million tCO₂/yr). Achieving the objectives will help to mitigate the effect that energy performance of buildings has on climate change.
The project team will demonstrate technical solutions and pilot renovations in 25 buildings, with the pilot renovations in the cities of Tartu (for multi-storey apartment buildings and detached houses), Rakvere (detached houses and historic buildings), and Võru (historic wooden buildings).
RESULTS
Expected results:
- Targets accomplished via provision and presenting of better technical solutions, building capacity, and aggregating demand for implementing the Estonian Long Term Renovation Strategy (LTRS) for existing buildings;
- Specific technical solutions created for deep renovations, including solutions for typical building envelopes and technical systems of residential buildings, corporate and public buildings, that can be replication in thousands of buildings;
- Development of standardised renovation solutions, demonstrated for the most problematic and typical situations, to significantly increase the speed and quality of design and reduce costs in the future;
- Advancing prefabricated renovation solutions (digitalisation of workflows and improvement of service delivery) also carried out;
- Practical demonstration and pilot renovations of 25 buildings, of different kinds (e.g. apartment blocks, detached houses, historic buildings) to provide a verified example that can be replicated in thousands of buildings;
- Analysis of a holistic fitness check for the different grant schemes presently available, and for innovative renovation business models (cost-sharing, etc.). Based on the preliminary analysis, new financing instruments (e.g. Housing Investments Fund) are expected to be launched and the existing grant system upgraded;
- Various climate change considerations in building sector targeted. National methodology developed for assessment of carbon footprint in renovations, along with necessary digital tools;
- Modelling of climate risks done to provide input for respective changes in renovation and construction standards and regulations; and
- Organisation of training events for around 1 000 experts, targeting constructors, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) engineers, architects, conservationists and professional building experts.
