Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings & Buildings Built with Industrialized Technology: The Case of Hungary

2016 ◽  
Vol 824 ◽  
pp. 469-476
Author(s):  
Attila Talamon ◽  
Viktória Sugár ◽  
Ferenc Pusztai
Keyword(s):  
Economic Structure ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
Ghg Emission ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Central European ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Zero Energy Buildings

There is an urgent need nowadays to reduce current levels of GHGs emissions. On the other hand the EU countries are largely dependent on energy imports and are vulnerable to disruption in energy supply which may in turn threaten the functioning of their current economic structure. The EU imported 54% of its energy sources in 2006 and this value was projected to increase even further by 2030. Reducing its import dependency is one of the EU’s main goals of the 20-20 by 2020 target – this legislative package is believed to reduce the expected imports of energy by 26% compared to the development before the 20-20 initiative.One of the most important environmental problems is the energy consumption of the buildings. Current paper shows that buildings built with industrialized technology can deliver large energy and GHG emission reductions at low costs.Only 1-2% part of the building stock is exchanged every year, so it is very important to increase the energy efficiency of the existing buildings, too.Present paper focuses on the buildings built with industrialized technology only, and their potential in nearly zero-energy buildings sector. Up till now the Central European support schemes concentrated most financial resources on buildings built with prefabricated technology. Present paper explains the past and present of the “panel” problem in Hungary with a short outlook to some other countries.

Deep renovation up to zero energy through Add-ons: the ABRACADABRA Project

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annarita Ferrante ◽  
Fabrizio Ungaro ◽  
Giovanni Semprini ◽  
Lorna Dragonetti ◽  
Elettra Agliardi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effective ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
The Real Estate ◽  
International Projects ◽  
Eu Project ◽  
The Eu

<p>and international projects</p><p>various EU H2020 projects</p><p>Though housing is one of the most energy consumer sectors, it is currently extremely underestimated, because of a clear investment gap due to economic, social and legislative barriers. The EU project ABRACADABRA (Assistant Building to Retrofit, Adopt, Cure And Develop the Actual Buildings up to zeRo energy, Activating a market for deep renovation) is based on the idea that the real estate value increase given by the appropriate densification strategy in urban environments could be an opportunity to activate a market for deep energy renovation. To prove the effectiveness of the strategy more than 70 case studies throughout the EU cities have been assessed by means of a cost-effective analysis. Basing on the parametric variation of the different values involved (cost of construction, energy, etc.) the benefit of this strategy has been proved in the majority of the different building types and contexts.</p><p>More interestingly, the ABRA strategy has been simulated and tested outside Europe in order to verify its scalability and the possibility of considering other non-energy related benefits in the renovation of the existing building stock. A specific study on the NYC urban context has been conducted to effectively adapt the strategy and combine the global drivers of energy consumption reduction and CO<span>2</span> emission reduction with the local need of combating flood emergency and related flood-proofing measures.</p><p>The results reached by this work demonstrate how the energy retrofit trough add-ons reduces significantly the payback times of the investments, preserve soil consumption, while providing a extraordinary opportunity to enhance urban resiliency by challenging the local emergencies.</p>

scholarly journals Towards Nearly Zero Energy and Environmentally Sustainable Agritourisms: The Effectiveness of the Application of the European Ecolabel Brand

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (17) ◽  
pp. 5741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Cirrincione ◽  
Maria La Gennusa ◽  
Giorgia Peri ◽  
Gianfranco Rizzo ◽  
Gianluca Scaccianoce
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Condition ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Energy Behavior ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Eu Ecolabel

Tourism represents an important economic driver in Italy, being responsible for approximately 13.2% of the total GDP (a value higher than the reference European average) and for nearly 10% of the regional GDP. Among the touristic sectors, the agritourist ones show a persistent growth, experiencing in 2019 a 6.7 point percentage improvement compared to the 2017 figures. Given this situation, the transition towards a low-carbon path, affecting the building sector for some time, should also involve agritourist buildings, through the release of EU directives, member state laws, and technical rules. On the other hand, agritourism sites could be awarded the Community EU Ecolabel. Unfortunately, awarding the EU environmental excellence brand implies the availability of several data on building energy behavior that should then be managed by complex evaluation tools. To overcome this issue, the use of the simplified ARERA (Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy Networks and Environment) technical datasheets, issued to assess environmental improvements consequent to energy efficiency interventions in the urban residential building stock, is proposed. The application of this tool totally avoids using building computer-based simulation models, thus facilitating the preparation of the EU Ecolabel request documentation by agritourism owners. Being awarded the Community EU Ecolabel also implies approaching a net zero energy condition because of a lower energy consumption and a minor recourse to fossil fuels. For this purpose, an application of an easy graphical method, previously developed for residential and commercial buildings, which visually represents improvements achievable by a given agritourism when implementing energy efficiency measures, is presented.

scholarly journals Zero Energy Buildings: A Reached Target or a Starting Point?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 512
Author(s):  
Enrico Fabrizio
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Zero Energy Buildings

The debate about zero energy buildings (ZEBs) has been one of the main new drivers of innovation in the construction industry around the world in the past decade [...]

scholarly journals Visegrad Group and Relations with Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radovan Višňovský
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central European ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Past ◽  
Visegrad Group ◽  
The Eu

This article refers to the Central European countries by meaning the Visegrad Group countries (V4) - Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. The development of the Visegrad Group aimed on integration to the Euro-Atlantic structures fulfilled its promise, nevertheless, the membership in Western structures does not necessarily mean the loss of Russian influence in the region of Central Europe. On the contrary, the region’s connection to Russia developed in the past remained to some extent even after the process of political transition in particular countries. Such connections are responsible for foreign policy discourse with a plethora of questions and misunderstandings on issues related to the political attitudes of Visegrad members towards Russia and some contradictory stances of the V4 countries among themselves as well with respect to Brussels. The EU’s politics of sanctions towards Russia is having a direct, counterproductive effect in Visegrad, what is resulting in undermined relations and weakened coherence inside the EU with the emergence of anti-Western and pro-Russian political parties that creates the space for Russian foreign policy to achieve more influence in the region. This article is analyzing the background of such discourse and some of the reasons behind the pro-Russian sentiment or discrepancies and non-coherence of the EU members’ opinions on Russia. At the same time, the awareness of the outcomes of this article can be relevant in analyzing the possibilities to avoid the deepening of the conflictual foreign policy between the EU and Russia, or the Visegrad and Russia, respectively. The research is built on both, primary and secondary sources, related mainly to the evolution of relations in specific areas between both sides. The mentioned historical perspective creates the basis of the analysis and is further put into contemporary discourse to find the answers on the question: what are the reasons for non-coherence of the EU and Visegrad towards the policy against Russia? To achieve the above-mentioned results, the analysis is provided in chronological perspective using the mixed methods by exploring the official documents, scholarly articles published on the topic, and public polls as well.

Towards Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB)

2011 ◽  
pp. 93-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paris A. Fokaides
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Building Models ◽  
Environmental Technologies ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Zero Energy Buildings

In 2009, European Union (EU) member states forged a long-awaited compromise on the recast buildings directive, agreeing that all new buildings would have to comply with high energy-performance standards by the end of 2020. The recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which was finally announced in May 2010, requires the public sector to take the lead by owning buildings with “nearly zero” energy consumption standards by the end of 2018, which is two years in advance of the private sector. The objective of this chapter is to discuss both the range of potential consequences to European cities resulting from widespread implementation of zero energy buildings (ZEBs) and the relevant environmental technologies in accordance with the national goals set by the EU Member States. As EU member states are moving ahead with their targets and strategies for ZEBs, this chapter presents the most possible scenarios for the implementation of the EU recast buildings directive regarding ZEBs by 2020. A detailed review regarding the existing EU member states’ definitions and policies on low energy buildings and ZEBs, and the current status of RES technologies for ZEBs is also presented. Finally, some first thoughts are provided regarding the minimisation of energy consumption in the building sector and the green city goal, as energy is considered to be one of the most important chapters when evaluating a green community. The next step for the integration of green buildings would be the adoption of principles resulting from ZEB analyses and descriptions in existing green building models.

scholarly journals Sustainable Urban Regeneration through Densification Strategies: The Kallithea District in Athens as a Pilot Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9462
Author(s):  
Annarita Ferrante ◽  
Anastasia Fotopoulou ◽  
Cecilia Mazzoli
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Vulnerability ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Innovative Methods ◽  
European Policies

The current main issue in the construction sector in Europe concerns the energy refurbishment and the reactivation of investments in existing buildings. Guidance for enhancing energy efficiency and encouraging member states to create a market for deep renovation is provided by a number of European policies. Innovative methods and strategies are required to attract and involve citizens and main stakeholders to undertake buildings’ renovation processes, which actually account for just 1% of the total building stock. This contribution proposes technical and financial solutions for the promotion of energy efficient, safe, and attractive retrofit interventions based on the creation of volumetric additions combined with renewable energy sources. This paper focuses on the urban reality of Athens as being an important example of a degraded urban center with a heavy heat island, a quite important heating demand, and a strong seismic vulnerability. The design solutions presented here demonstrate that the strategy of additions, because of the consequent increased value of the buildings, could represent an effective densification policy for the renovation of existing urban settings. Hence, the aim is to trigger regulatory and market reforms with the aim to boost the revolution towards nearly zero energy buildings for the existing building stocks.

Attitudes and approaches of Irish retrofit industry professionals towards achieving nearly zero-energy buildings

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheikh Zuhaib ◽  
Richard Manton ◽  
Magdalena Hajdukiewicz ◽  
Marcus M. Keane ◽  
Jamie Goggins
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Social Barriers ◽  
Performance Targets ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
Zero Energy Buildings

Purpose There is profound demand for higher skills and expertise in retrofitting the existing building stock of Europe. The delivery of low- or nearly zero-energy retrofits is highly dependent on technical expertise, adoption of new materials, methods of construction and innovative technologies. Future Irish national building regulations will adopt the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive vision of retrofitting existing buildings to higher energy efficiency standards. Construction industry stakeholders are key for the achievement of energy performance targets. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to assess the attitudes, approaches and experiences of Irish construction professionals regarding energy efficient buildings, particularly nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEBs). Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through a series of quantitative and qualitative methods, including a survey, a workshop and detailed interviews with professionals in the retrofit industry. The structure of this approach was informed by preliminary data and information available on the Irish construction sector. Findings There is a substantial amount of ambiguity and reluctance among the professionals in reaching the Irish nZEB targets. The growing retrofit industry demonstrates low-quality auditing and pre/post-retrofit analysis. Basic services and depth of retrofits are compromised by project budgets and marginal profits. Unaligned value supply chain, poor interaction among nZEB professionals and fragmented services are deterrents to industry standardisation. Practical implications This study will enable construction industry stakeholders to make provisions for overcoming the barriers, gaps and challenges identified in the practices of the retrofit projects. It will also inform the formulation of policies that drive retrofit uptake. Social implications This study has implications for understanding the social barriers existing in retrofit projects. Support from clients/owners has a diverse impact on energy performance and retrofit decisions. Community-based initiatives are key to unlock the promotion of nZEBs. Originality/value This paper provides an overview of current activities of retrofit professionals and analyses the barriers, gaps and challenges in the industry.

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