Decreasing Europe’s Energy Dependency through Building Renovation

To ensure a sufficient energy supply for the European market, the European Union (EU) is greatly dependent on imports from third countries, with Russia being the main source of fossil fuels imports. A new report from Guidehouse demonstrates how EU energy dependency could be decreased through building renovation measures.

Guidehouse experts focus on three key messages in the report: reducing oil and gas dependency through deep renovation, the impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the cost-effectiveness of reducing fossil energy dependency on the demand side. The report focuses particularly on the worst performing buildings and provides discusses the application of more stringent renovation requirements than the current scale proposed by the European Commission.

The analysis focuses on the impact of renovating some of the worst performing buildings, primarily by improving the efficiency of the building shell to a point of being considered “heat pump ready” – reducing additional demand on power generation and allowing efficient operations. 

“The combination of thermal insulation and heat pump technology would allow on the one hand to cut-off fossil fuels used for heating in the building sector, and on the other hand to improve living conditions for millions of European households and reduce energy bills,” explains the report. 

Additionally, the analysis emphasizes the significant impact ambitious renovations can have on decarbonization, as phasing out gas, oil, and coal use for heating would reduce GHG emissions.