The EU-funded project ZEBRA2020, launched end of April in Vienna, will monitor the market uptake of low-energy buildings across Europe and thereby generate data and evidence for policy evaluation and optimisation. The Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) project gathers eight partners, Enerdata included, from academia, research and private consultancy, covering 17 European Member States.
A sustainable European society and economy will be based on renewable energy and high resource efficiency. For the housing sector, this implies the large scale deployment of low-energy buildings (so called nearly Zero-Energy Buildings or nZEBs). Indeed, European legislation (Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) makes nZEBs a standard by 2020. The technology is already available and proven; however, the large-scale uptake of nZEB construction and renovation will be a big challenge for all market actors and stakeholders involved. To start with, there is a substantial gap in reliable data on current market activities. This makes it difficult for policy makers to evaluate the success of their policies and measures. Energy Performance Certificates were designed as a policy instrument stimulating demand, but does this idea really meet market realities?
May 2015: Zebra 2020 launches monitoring current market transition datatool.