By Frédéric Simon | EURACTIV.com

07-10-2022 (updated: 07-10-2022 )

"Building energy efficiency has a massive unrealised potential to save energy using existing technologies," says David Ducarme. [Knauf Insulation]

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This article is part of our special report Efficiency: The pillar of Europe’s energy security.

A properly insulated home will allow heat pumps to deliver their “magic trick” – a 400% efficiency rating over the 90% figure observed for fossil gas boilers. Yet, these efficiency gains will not materialise unless homes are heat-pump ready, says David Ducarme.

David Ducarme is the group chief operating officer at Knauf Insulation. He responded in writing to questions by EURACTIV’s senior energy and environment editor, Frédéric Simon.

The gas crisis has put the spotlight on the need to reduce energy demand in the short term. What measures can be implemented in the coming months that can bring the most energy savings for the coming winter, both for gas and electricity?

The energy crisis is definitively calling for short-term measures that can alleviate pressure on households and industry players.

However, short-term measures can only deliver so much. A more holistic review of our energy systems is required.

Let’s be clear, there is no silver bullet to this energy crisis. Beyond short-term emergency measures, a long-term outlook is needed to mitigate any risks that may turn this Winter crisis into Winter and Summer crises.

In the short term, it is crucial to diversify energy sources and work with reliable international partners. Fortunately, this is happening. Yet, our dependence on energy sources must also be addressed at the heart of our economy. Buildings are responsible for around 40% of Europe’s total energy consumption. A recent BPIE study has concluded that drastically improving the energy performance of buildings envelopes would decrease by 45% the energy demand for heating and cooling the building stock.

Shifting in the long term our mindset toward energy efficiency renovation programmes is a priority, as recently reminded by Commission President von der Leyen. In particular, building energy efficiency has a massive unrealised potential to save energy using existing technologies. And money from the recovery and resilience plans remains available for such efforts. Let’s not waste time and energy by delaying their use.

Furthermore, national governments can embed energy efficiency policies within their energy security strategy. For instance, within less than a year our glass mineral wool will save the equivalent of four times the energy required for its production, that’s a tremendous quick win for households and the environment.

So, whilst the coming months look difficult, governments should refrain themselves from putting on hold renovation programmes, on the contrary. These bring effective changes for households as insulation brings comfort not just in Winter but also in the Summer as buildings require more and more cooling during extreme heat periods.

Is electricity and gas demand rationing inevitable this winter? How can it be avoided?

A societal effort is required under the current circumstances. Players across the board shall do their part – whether industries, public authorities, or households. Whether rationing will be necessary remains to be seen.

Market forces are at play here: with such high energy prices, industries have already started pausing their operations to mitigate risks from ever-increasing energy costs. Households are also reducing their present consumption to limit their overall energy cost.

This de facto contributes to minimising energy consumption; allowing certain countries like Belgium to gear up for next Winter and be on track for their reduction targets.

So, public measures to ration energy consumption may come as a last resort mechanism and be triggered only if necessary.

But buildings remain our year-round weak spot in the energy transition: it is essential to stay the course, reducing the energy demand of the building stock is the only answer. So, let’s not forget that this crisis is there to stay and that we need multiple, long-term solutions to mitigate risks for future winters.

Energy efficiency should be the backbone of every scenario. Diversifying energy suppliers alone or shifting to renewable energy solely will not do any justice to consumers, to quote President von der Leyen.

In your experience, what national schemes are the most efficient in improving the energy performance of buildings and cutting energy bills for consumers? What lessons could the EU learn from those national schemes?

National schemes are instrumental to improve the energy performance of buildings and cutting energy bills sustainably. At present, renovation efforts are too light and renovation rates too low (i.e., less than 1% when they should be reaching 2-3% annually).

Let’s zoom in on Italy and Slovakia.

In Italy, the so-called Superbonus was boosted to give homeowners a fiscal deduction of 110% of the total renovation costs to incentivise the economic recovery after the COVID pandemic. Based on data gathered by the Italian Energy Agency, since its launch in Jan 2021 and up to May 2022, the scheme activated investments for over €30bn in more than 172.000 buildings. This allowed the renovation of nearly 40 million square metres of building stock and saves 5.650 GWh/year of primary energy. And figures are growing with the last data reporting that the level of investments to September 2022 has reached nearly €40bn.

Recent studies have also calculated the return on investment for the government and the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the construction sector. But the programme is being challenged. It is an experience that must continue and that should become more structural with an extension of its application to at least 2030 and a progressive reduction of the incentive in proportion to the ambition and depth of the renovations.

More than half of multi-apartment buildings in Slovakia have by now been insulated, following a renovation process that kickstarted in the late 1990s. This is thanks to an agile group of experts, industry-led promotional activities and a commence of incentive mechanisms. Government support in form of building-saving schemes delivered through private financial institutions and preferential loans from the National Housing Development Fund combined with progressive legislation on housing associations have enabled a take-off of insulation in times of high interest rates. Despite regular budget boosts, the annual volume of loans has been insufficient to cover demand literally every year, proving the popularity of this kind of incentive mechanism, especially when provided in a long term.

Bottom-line, any successful scheme requires binding ambitions, flexibility, long-term trajectory and creative means to deliver necessary results.

Solutions like home insulation take time to implement – typically years, not months. How can those be speeded up? And how soon can the effects be felt on energy bills?

Process and permits to renovate homes may take months, particularly when façades are refurbished.

But insulating does not take months. To address the demand and fast-track energy-efficiency renovation, authorities should start by simplifying permitting processes and acknowledging insulating solutions that bring quick results.

For instance, in Brussels, it’s no longer necessary to get a permit to insulate one’s façade.

Furthermore, industry should also innovate to bring quantified, effective insulation results to households. Digital solutions exist to demonstrate the real-time impact of a properly insulated envelope and the gain that is observed. At Knauf Energy Solutions, we are demonstrating and implementing energy savings for households by using real-time energy efficiency measurement techniques and rolling-out energy-renovation efforts calibrated to the building’s needs. That’s a direct innovation at the crossroad of digitalisation and insulation that has brought roughly 35-38% savings on average to this day.

We also should focus efforts on the worst-performing buildings with a staged approach where buildings should attain a defined energy efficiency level by a certain date. In this regard, as a manufacturer, we have the responsibility to design solutions that are faster to implement. Solutions such as blowing wool allow insulating a loft of 100 sqm in around 90 minutes with only two workers onsite.

This type of energy renovation endeavours can deliver multiple renovation works within one day for the benefit of a maximum of households.

Green advocates often highlight the need to build synergies between energy efficiency measures and renewables. Can you please give examples of how this can be achieved in practice?

The has never been a greater moment to bridge energy efficiency renovation with renewable energies. An analysis by Knauf Energy Solutions into the winter peak challenge for Germany concluded that whilst overall electricity demand for electric heating would increase by 356 Terawatt-hour per year, the additional generation capacity needed to deliver this demand, due to winter peaks and generation troughs, would be 2,129 TWh/year, almost five times more.

Energy efficiency has a tremendous role to play to deliver renewable energy to households whilst limiting costly investments into energy capacity for society.

Shifting away from fossil fuels calls for executing various solutions such as heat pumps. However, heat pumps alone will not do the trick. A properly insulated home will allow heat pumps to deliver their so-called “magic trick”: If you put 1 kWh of electricity into the hat and you pull four units of heat out. That’s essentially a 400% efficiency rating over gas boilers’ 90% figure.

Yet, this efficiency is not observed unless homes are heat pump ready – meaning properly insulated. Out of 66 surveyed homes, only six heat pumps delivered the promised 1 to 4 ratio – this has a direct consequence on the energy costs of households.  An integrated assessment of heating systems and the building envelope efficiency is essential to a successful energy renovation.

In a world where heat pumps will also be operated, our economies will have a capacity challenge. While this is not a problem when everyone’s using a gas boiler, it does become an issue with heat pumps as our economies transition to intermittent renewable energies. If all the heat pumps tick on at the same time, the grid will fail as there simply is not enough renewable energy to meet demand. In an electrified economy, insulation will do its share: by preventing increasing and costly investments into energy capacity, and enabling heat pumps to operate efficiently thereby reducing further the energy needs.

Out of the nearly 250 million houses in Europe, less than 10% were built in the last 10 years and are not in accordance with the latest insulation standards. Furthermore, of the 85 – 90% of the current building stock that will still be standing in 2050, at least 75% is energy inefficient and, without significant renovation, not properly configured for a heat pump. Decarbonising the building stock necessarily passes by plugging heat pumps to properly insulated buildings: combining efforts in this direction can only be beneficial for all European citizens.

The European Union is currently reviewing its Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and its Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), with a focus on insulation and electrification, among other priorities. What are the key measures for you in this ongoing revision process?

The revised EPBD and the EED will be the backbone of a resilient and decarbonised building stock. Their combined level of ambition is crucial to set the build environment on the right path for the decades to come. Knauf Insulation sees these revisions as opportunities to incrementally bring buildings to their next levels.

First, we must start by phasing renovation works over time and targeting the worst-performing buildings. Setting energy performance obligations to be achieved by a certain date in time will allow players in society (e.g., the construction industry, homeowners) to plan and deliver renovation works.

Secondly, digital solutions exist to strengthen the energy performance certificates, complementing or substituting the analysis with real-time, accurate data sets that provide the performance of the building and assess the energy efficiency renovation measures that are required to decrease the buildings’ energy needs.

Finally, long-term decarbonisation of the building stock entails setting long-term trajectories on whole-life carbon (including both operational and embodied carbon).

Whilst operational carbon (i.e., energy needed to cool and heat) remains the largest share of the carbon emitted by the building stock, the embodied carbon (e.g., carbon associated with the products) gradually needs to be addressed by regulation and will require the construction industry to invest in its decarbonisation.

The EPBD is an opportunity to rightly set the pathway by sequencing the development of a whole-life carbon approach per category of buildings and type of construction (e.g., renovation or new build), starting with pilot projects, reporting data, prior to setting benchmarks or thresholds. Such an approach should also be relying on scientifically recognised European harmonised standards: the only toolset existing to ensure a level playing between all manufacturers.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Nathalie Weatherald]

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