Energy efficiency potential of the European building stock

Abstract

In developed economies, such as the European Union’s member states, the largest potential for energy efficiency improvements lies in retrofitting existing buildings. Thus, a model has been developed to assess the energy efficiency potentials for building stocks, the Energy, Carbon and Cost Assessment for Building Stocks (ECCABS). It simulates the energy flows in buildings and returns the emissions based on the energy demands. Germany in particular is interesting as it accounts for nearly 20% of all the population in the European Union, and thus also for a major share of its building stock. Thus, in a previous master thesis Wanjani and Bauer have already completed the characterisation of the Germany dwelling building stock. Now it is possible to simulate individual and aggregated measures and see their results in terms of energy and emissions. The model is completed by a cost analysis, as this is the most important factor for the house owners on deciding on any measure to take. The simulations show that all investigated measures can be applied cost efficiently to parts of the building stock. The total savings per measure range from 1.24 TWh/a to 380 TWh/a for the whole building stock and 0.19 to 120 Mt CO2-equivalent respectively. The cost efficient savings rise up to 66 TWh/a which corresponds to 25 Mt CO2-equivalent. Further savings are achievable by subsidies, which go up to 150 bn. €/a and save up to 230 TWh/a and 632 Mt CO2-equivalent.