9 Modernisation and renovation research
9.4 Major ongoing and future research in the field of renovation
9.4.1 Main current and future research programmes
In this paragraph a description is given of the main current and future research pro-grammes in the countries (name of programme and the main research topics).
Austria
Ongoing research projects:
• Haus der Zukunft/Fabrik der Zukunft (House of the Future/Factory of the Fu-ture, finished by 2007): low energy and passive house standards in housing struction, refurbishment and in the non-residential sector too; sustainable con-struction; demonstration projects.
• Energy Economics Group (Vienna University of Technology for Dachverband Energie-Klima, Wirtschaftskammer Österreich): study on the use of renewable energy in the building stock (published September 2007).
• BRA.IN (Branchen-Initiative) Bauwirtschaft (Sectoral Initiative for the construc-tion sector): construcconstruc-tion products; integrative research into the value-added chain of construction products; construction industry-related services.
• Housing research within the housing subsidy schemes of the provinces: mainly bottom-up research; evaluation of construction processes; development of energy standards and promotional tools.
• Klima:aktiv: mainly aimed at communication.
The last three projects named above (BRA.IN, Housing research, Klima:aktiv) will also be important in the near future.
Finland
Ongoing projects:
• Ihmisten ja kiinteistojen elamansyklit (IKE): life cycle of buildings and real estate.
• ClimBus: Business Opportunities in Mitigating Climate Change (2004-2008): fo-cus on developing technologies and business concepts to reduce GHG emissions but can include buildings (total EUR 70 Million, managed by TEKES).
• SARA: Value networks in construction (2003-2007): focus on IT and managing customer needs and competence of the construction industry in the world market (EUR 33 Million, managed by TEKES)
• KITARA: IT adaptation in machine, building and automation techniques (2005-2009), managed by the Academy of Finland.
Future projects:
• Sustainable urban communities, prepared by TEKES.
France
Ongoing and future projects:
• PREBAT: energy efficiency in new and existing buildings.
• Fondation Bâtiment Energie: low energy in new and existing buildings.
Germany
Important ongoing projects:
• Energieforschungsprogramm der Bundesregierung (2006): Innovation und neue Energietechnologien: renewable energies.
• Zukunft Bau/BMVBS (Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban De-velopment): construction industry, life cycle assessment, market transparency, technical and legal regulations, quality, new materials etc.
• Umweltforschungsplan UFOPLAN 2007/BMU (Federal Ministry for the Envi-ronment): material efficiency, energy efficiency, renewable energies, climate pro-tection, health (www.bmu.de/forschung/ufoplan_2007/doc/38678.php).
• Forschung für Nachhaltigkeit - FoNa/BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education and Research: climate protection, resources management.
Future projects:
• Umweltbundesamt/Federal Office for the Environment:
Umweltfor-schungsplan/environmental research plan 2007: general environmental topics, among them energy and construction: e.g. Entwicklung von Methoden zur Evaluierung von Energieeinsparung (EU-RL 2006/32/EG).
http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/service/ufoplan.htm
• Federal Ministry for Transport, Construction and Housing/BMVBW: For-schungsinitiative Zukunft Bau: construction industry, life cycle assessment, mar-ket transparency, technical and legal regulations, quality, new materials etc.
Netherlands Ongoing projects:
• Energy transition: PeGO (energy in the built environment platform;
(www.senternovem.nl).
• EOS (energy subsidy research): aims to initiate and support innovation and re-search in the fields of energy efficiency and sustainable energy
(www.senternovem.nl).
Projects for the near future:
• Energy saving in existing buildings.
• MEP (Environmental quality of the Electricity Production).
Sweden
Ongoing projects:
• MISTRA: sustainable building; the focus still lies on new construction.
Future projects:
• The government estimates that about one million housing units will need to be renovated in the next 20 years and states that this is a unique opportunity to use the new technology that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s aiming to make housing from the “Million Homes Programme” the most energy-smart buildings in Europe. Experience from earlier projects should be demonstrated and spread as a basis for this work. In the Energy Bill, the Government would therefore like to augment measures for research, development and demonstration as regards en-ergy use in buildings and enen-ergy-smart construction.
The Government wants the Swedish Energy Agency, together with the Swedish En-vironmental Protection Agency, the National Board of Housing, Building and Plan-ning and the Swedish Consumer Agency, to run a targeted national energy efficiency campaign. The objective is to demonstrate technical solutions that contribute to in-creased energy efficiency. The campaign will provide information about the coming energy declarations and addresses individual homeowners and owners of multi-dwelling buildings and premises as well as other relevant key players.
Switzerland
Ongoing projects:
• Energiewirtschafltiche Grundlagen: ongoing research by the BFE, all topics of energy policy.
• CCEM (Competence Centre of Energy and Mobility), managed by PSI (Philipp Dietrich): check their website ccem-ch.web.psi.ch. Ongoing research and part-ners:
http://ccem-ch.web.psi.ch/documents/CCEM%20Report%202006_final.pdf In the near future research projects from the CCEM (Competence Centre of Energy and Mobility) will be of importance:
• Advanced Energy-efficient Renovation of Buildings (http://www.empa-ren.ch/ccem-retrofit.htm; contact Dr Mark Zimmermann, EMPA/+41 44 823 4118).
• Innovative Building Technologies for the 2000-Watt-Society (House2000);
(http://www.sysecol.ethz.ch/OptiControl; contact Dipl. Ing. Thomas Frank, EMPA).
United Kingdom Current projects:
• CaRB (Carbon Reduction in Buildings) :the CaRB project is developing computer models that will predict how much carbon can be saved by incorporating different energy efficiency or renewable energy measures (e.g. cavity wall insulation or solar power) into different types of domestic and non-domestic buildings. Savings from campaigns to modify consumer preference – such as advertising campaigns and financial incentives – can also be estimated. (Professor Kevin Lomas, De Mont-fort University (Tel 0116 257 7961); CaRB website
• TARBASE (Technology Assessment for Radically Improving the Built Asset Base): the TARBASE project is identifying carbon-saving technologies that, if in-corporated into existing buildings, could deliver a 50% cut in their carbon emis-sions by 2030. Andrew Peacock (TARBASE Project Manager), Heriot-Watt Uni-versity (Tel 0131 451 4359)
• BMT (Building Market Transformation): the BMT project aims to explore what is needed to ensure that measures with the potential to deliver a 50% cut in build-ings’ carbon emissions are taken up as widely and as quickly as possible. Although there is significant potential for existing technology to reduce carbon emissions in both domestic and non-domestic buildings, improvements are not being made.
This applies both to new buildings and the refurbishment of existing ones. Dr Brenda Boardman, Principal Investigator (Tel 01865 285170) or Dr Mark Hin-nells, Project Manager (Tel 01865 285164)
Besides Carbon Vision the following projects will be of importance in the near fu-ture:
• UrbanBuzz: building Sustainable Communities is a 2 year programme that aims to develop new ways of delivering genuinely sustainable forms of development and community in London and the wider Southeast region. University College Lon-don (UCL) and University of East LonLon-don (UEL) are the co-originators and fa-cilitators of UrbanBuzz.
• Carbon Trust: the Carbon Trust provides funding for research and demonstration projects, for example Bristol City Council. The Carbon Trust worked with Bristol City Council to produce a longer-term Carbon Management Action Plan – a list of energy-saving recommendations designed to save Bristol City Council more than £400 000 in the next five years and to reduce its level of carbon emissions.
9.4.2 Research orientation
The experts consulted in Austria, France and Switzerland have provided us with in-formation about the focus of their research projects. Table 9.1 gives an overview.
Research orientation Scope of re-search Name of institute or researcher
Universities in cooperation with industry:
multiple product developments IIBW: Research projects on promotion schemes for housing renovation Institut für Bauschadensforschung: “Ös-terreichischer Bauschadensbericht”
IBO: research on ecological products, standards, labelling and implementation Austrian Energy Agency: implementation of Energy performance labelling (EPBD) France
CSTB Switzerland
ETH Zurich (several institutes) EMPA, Dübendorf, CCEM project “ad-vanced energy-efficient renovation, various other projects (M. Zimmermann) HTA Luzern various projects (U. Menti) Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz various projects (Prof. Binz)
Table 9.1 indicates that the research projects are predominantly technically and eco-nomically oriented.
9.4.3 Funding of research
Various experts have made an estimate of how the research on sustainable renova-tion is funded in their country. Table 9.2 gives an impression.
Austria France Germany Netherlands
National government 50 35 16 80
European Commission 5 10 10
University 5 5 47 10
Private operators 30 30 37
Provincial governments 10
Public-private funds 10
Other: : local authorities 10
Source: experts’ opinions (questionnaire).
Table 9.2 shows that the funding (or rather the estimation of the funding) differs be-tween the countries. The national government (sometimes via universities as in Ger-many) seems to be the most important financier of the research projects. Private op-erators are responsible for one third of the funding, roughly speaking.
Table 9.1: Research orientation and scope of the research
Table 9.2: Funding of research on sustainable renovation; estimates (%) by experts in various countries
The Finnish and Swiss research projects are financed by the national government, European Commission, universities, private operators and sometimes by a combina-tion of public-private funds. All these parties fund research but there is no break-down available for sustainable renovation.
The main financiers in the United Kingdom are the Engineering and Physical Sci-ences Research Council (EPSRC) ( by far the largest ) the Carbon Trust, the De-partment of Trade and Industry (DTI, now replaced by DBERR and DIUS), the Leverhulme Trust and the National Environment Research Council (NERC).
9.4.4 Organisations that have developed research programmes
The organisations that have developed research programmes for the future are roughly the same as those that carry out the current research programmes. Most of them are public organisations: ministries (of housing, of environment, etc.), energy agencies, national organisations for building technology, universities, etc.
A list provided by the countries’ experts can be found in Appendix I.
9.4.5 Main future themes of research on sustainable renovation
For six countries, we have information about the main themes on sustainable renova-tion in the years to come.
• In Austria, the focus will lie on research into energy conservation and research on sustainable construction products.
• Finland’s research projects will be aimed at indoor climate and public health.
• The French respondents think that research on energy conservation and research aimed at the realisation of low energy renovation will be the most important in the near future.
• In Germany and the Netherlands, future research will also be aimed at energy conservation.
9.5 Conclusions
The main focus of current research projects lies on energy efficiency and energy sav-ing:
⋅ Austria: low and renewable energy, sustainable construction products.
⋅ Finland: life cycle studies and their use in the building industry.
⋅ France: energy efficiency and low energy.
⋅ Germany: renewable energy, energy and material efficiency and the future of the building industry.
⋅ Netherlands: energy efficiency, sustainable energy.
⋅ Sweden: sustainable building of new constructions.
⋅ Switzerland: energy policy and energy efficiency.
⋅ United Kingdom: reduction of carbon emissions through carbon-saving tech-nologies, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The current research projects are in essence technically and economically oriented and combine a scientific and strategic approach.
In the near future energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy will remain im-portant research topics. The main bulk of research projects are being carried out by public organisations: ministries, national energy agencies, national organisations for building technology, and universities.