Energy performance of buildings

KEY POINTS

National building renovation plan

Every EU Member State must develop a plan for renovating its national building stocks so that they are highly energy-efficient and decarbonised by 2050. Plans must:

• include an overview of the national building stock, of market barriers and failures and of capacities in the construction, energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors;
• set out a roadmap with 2030, 2040 and 2050 targets for annual renovation rates, reducing primary energy use and greenhouse gas emissions and reducing energy poverty;
• include an overview of implemented and planned policies and measures;
• outline investment needs, financing sources and administrative resources required for building renovations.

Minimum energy performance requirements

Member States must:

• set and regularly update minimum energy performance requirements for buildings and building elements to achieve cost-optimal levels;
• adopt a methodology for calculating the energy performance of buildings, considering design conditions and indoor environmental quality.

New buildings

Member States must ensure that:

• new buildings owned by public bodies are zero-emission buildings from 2028, and all new buildings are zero-emission buildings from 2030 – a zero-emission building must meet high energy performance standards, must not produce any on-site emissions from fossil fuels and must produce zero or a very low amount of operational greenhouse gas emissions.
• from 2026, new large buildings (over 1,000 square metres) have their life-cycle global warming potential (GWP) calculated, extending to all new buildings by 2030.

Minimum energy performance standards

The directive requires Member States to:

• set minimum energy performance standards for non-residential buildings that will trigger the renovation of their 16 % worst-performing non-residential buildings by 2030 and their 26 % worst-performing non-residential buildings by 2033;
• establish a trajectory for progressively renovating residential buildings to improve the average energy performance of their residential building stock.

Other rules

The directive:

• seeks to ensure that new buildings are designed to optimise solar energy potential and mandates the gradual roll-out of solar energy installations on buildings;
• introduces a scheme for renovation passports to guide building owners through complex renovation processes in a staged manner;
• sets requirements for the installation and optimisation of technical building systems to enhance energy performance;
• mandates the installation of recharging points for electric vehicles and bicycle parking spaces in new and renovated buildings;
• sets up a scheme for rating the smart readiness of buildings, encouraging the use of smart technologies to improve energy efficiency and performance;
• seeks to ensure building owners, tenants and managers have access to building systems’ data and facilitates interoperability of services and data exchange;
• requires Member States to:
  • provide financing support and address market barriers to encourage investments in building renovations,
  • set up a certification system and one-stop shops for the energy performance of buildings,
  • set up a system for regular independent inspections of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.

Repeal

The directive repeals Directive 2010/31/EU, consolidating and updating previous regulations.