Energy efficiency improvement of building stock in the European Union

Approximately 40% of energy consumption in the European Union (EU) is used in buildings. Energy certification of buildings, introduced by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, is aimed to encourage energy renovations. How this will succeed depends to a large extent on the conditions in Member States (MS). In the international scientific collaboration project both technical and institutional country specific characteristics were investigated in ten MS. The barriers to energy savings and the policy measures set up to overcome these barriers were preliminarily mapped by interviewing the stake holders in each of these MS. The project delivered assessment on energy savings achievable in the housing stock in selected MS. The study shows that 10% of energy consumption for space heating can be avoided by the year 2020 and 20% by the year 2030 if cost-effective energy improvement measures are implemented in the building stock of studied MS. We also elaborated on the efforts to identify obstacles that hinder active implementation of energy enhancement measures. A number of face-to-face interviews and extensive electronic questionnaire surveying homeowners were carried out simultaneously in ten MS. The results of this part focusing on Finland are reported.