The following information has been gathered as part of the CONCERTO Premium policy research.
Benefits of CONCERTO:
Key benefits:
The biggest success was that more new low-energy buildings could be built than originally planned Energy in Minds had a big influence on the municipality, in particular on how the municipality sees EU-projects as possibility to develop activities with international cooperation.
Experiences and results have been spread by guided tours to demonstration sites, at regional and national seminars and conferences. Research on the used renewable technologies - solar air applications, small scale CHP, evaluation of low energy buildings and small scale district heating have increased knowledge and means to apply these technologies. The four low energy multi-story houses with 108 apartments are the first in Falkenberg designed according to passive building principles. The goal for energy use for heat and hot water was 45 kWh/m²a. Monitoring of the first 2 buildings that were finalized in November 2008, shows an energy use for heat and hot water of 34 – 36 kWh/m²a. Electricity for building services included, the need is 47 kWh/m²a, that is less than half of the accepted demand for new builds in Sweden.
Subsidies for households improving their energy efficiency enabled the realization of a coherent approach. The actions within Energy in Minds contributed to two of the national environmental quality objectives: Reduced Climate Impact and A Good Built Environment.
Barriers encountered:
Legal barriers:
There was weak supported from energy policy. Therefore, the municipality tried to push for higher energy standards in new buildings as voluntary measures.
Technical barriers:
General lack of experience e.g. model projects, data, benchmarking. A heat pump installed as part of a DH scheme had lots of technical problems and did not perform as expected as the waste water was found to contain less heat than expected. It would not have been economical for local energy company to repair it. As a result, this part of the Energy in Minds project had to be abandoned.
Economic barriers:
Limited financial and human resources available, especially in initial phase.
Success factors identified:
Social Success factors:
The municipal energy company was used for spreading information, as information was sent out together with their bills.
A smart box, touch screen display, in every flat encouraged tenants to keep track of their energy consumption. The staircase facade facing south is a solar-air collector that preheats the ventilation air. Good indoor climate and pleased tenants were two important criteria for Fabo, the housing company. The local policy for wind power seeks to gather turbines to large parks. Thus landscape and the natural and cultural environment were spared from being over exploited and a common acceptance for wind power was obtained.
The annual Energy Day with exhibitions and lectures significantly contributed to a growing interest for renewable energy. By adding activities such as quiz competitions, music performances, these events aimed to engage not only the usual male part of households but the whole family. Especially for the small scale solar thermal installations these events were of importance as solar panels are usually not much marketed and exhibited by installers. During the first two years, the interest in solar thermal installation by private persons was quite low but in the end the goal of 800 m² was even exceeded and 268 more households can today enjoy the heat from the sun in their homes.
Institutional success factors:
A new regional energy agency has been established. Municipal authority engaged building constructor as a third party, strong commitment, excellent stakeholder mix and their engagement from the beginning. The project was well planned and therefore ran relatively smoothly.
Economic success factors:
Investments in wind farms benefit from the national green certificates system. Interest in wind energy rises. The price of wood chips is very low in Sweden and this makes biomass systems very attractive compared to other technologies.
Other:
CONCERTO objectives were in line with and reinforced by national environmental quality objectives, in particular “reduced climate impact” and “good built environment”.
Legacy – follow-on projects:
The five wind turbines installed within the Energy in Minds project provided valuable planning input for a large offshore park with 30 turbines, about 8 km out to sea.
New private low-energy houses: 10 built under EIM - The contractor of the new low-energy houses built within EiM was so convinced of the low energy concept that when he build houses for sale in his own company, these were built with the same energy performance, that is far better than the national requirements. During EiM, about ten apartments in terraced house were built. In total the housing area was planned for 84 apartments in detached houses, terraced houses and small multifamily houses.
Other housing companies, consultants and decision makers from large parts of Sweden showed a great interest in the project. The project was paved way for low energy buildings to be the standard in the future buildings not only within Fabo the housing company.
The buildings had also paved way for private entrepreneurs to use the low energy solutions in a housing project of 87 flats in detached houses, terraced houses and multi- family buildings. Also when public buildings was built, a higher energy performance was required than the present national regulations demands.
Legacy - Policy Developments:
A new “energy plan” was compiled after end of project. This was an action plan for municipality addressing first and foremost their own buildings, but with a certain outreach remit to the community.
As Energy in Minds proved that better standards are realistic, local recommendations for energy standards had become more ambitions (for new municipality owned buildings end use of heat and domestic hot water is 50 kWh/m²,a (housing) and 75 in public buildings).