Fair Energy Transition Towards Nearly Zero Energy Buildings

Progress Report, March 2013

How ready are European social housing providers to meet the nearly-Zero Energy Challenge?

BSHF was one of the partners in the EU-funded Power House Europe project to encourage the sharing of good practice in energy-saving by social housing providers throughout Europe.

This three year project was completed in 2011 and a further three year project is currently being funded by the EU’s Intelligent Energy Programme. This is entitled the nearly-Zero Energy Challenge and will build capacity and confidence amongst Europe’s social, cooperative and public housing providers ahead of the nearly-Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) obligations to be introduced in 2020.

This progress report presents the current developments towards nZEB in Europe, as well as the barriers faced. The report also provides recommendations for action that could be implemented to ease the transition to nearly-zero energy homes, with a variety of best policy and practice examples emerging throughout Europe that are dealing with different aspects of delivering a fair energy transition.

The report was presented at the World Sustainable Energy Days conference in Wels, Austria on 1st March 2013.