Buildings consume about 40% of total final energy in Europe, and those buildings built before 1980 represent 95% of this energy consumption.

The project which has 23 partners across Europe is titled “Affordable and Adaptable Public Buildings through Energy Efficient Retrofitting” or A2PBEER for short. The project aims to reduce the amount of energy used in older buildings through the development of a systemic, energy efficient buildings’ retrofitting methodology for public buildings which will take advantage of synergies derived from interventions at district level.

 Mr Ciaran Lynch, Development Manager at LIT said, “This is a novel and exciting project which will have real impact on energy consumption. The low renovation rate of building stock (1% per year) means that boosting retrofitting to achieve more energy-efficient buildings is the only way to reach EU’s “20-20-20” targets. The higher impact will be achieved through interventions in non-residential buildings, as their energy consumption is 40% higher than in residential buildings with public buildings more than 30% of the non-residential buildings in the EU.  LIT’s experience in retrofitting as part of the EU SERVE Project completed in 2012 was one of the reasons it was invited to become a member of the A2PBEER partnership.”

A2PBEER will use existing methodologies as well as more innovative ones developed by the project. The A2PBEER results will also be applied to three complementary virtual projects addressing climatic areas and end-uses not included in the practical programme.  LIT will lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive “Train the Trainer” programme which will include on-line delivery.  An innovative market approach will allow results to be transferred to all key players of the value chain, with a special focus on SMEs. In addition transferability to social housing will be also addressed.

The overall project value is €11 million with €7million of this being provided by the EU. The LIT element of the project is €280,000 of which €246,000 will be provided by the EU. Dr Maria Hinfelaar, President of LIT welcomed the funding news, “LIT is a big player in delivering the sustainability agenda. We run courses as well as research projects on themes such as renewable energy, monitoring energy usage and low-carbon building technologies. We are very proud to be part of this major European project.”