Former industrial complex in Rome

This Positive Energy Building (PEB) Upgrade Plan outlines the redevelopment strategy for a heritage building located in Rome, Italy, aimed at transforming it into a sustainable, energy-efficient structure that produces more energy than it consumes. The building, originally used for educational purposes, is undergoing significant architectural and structural interventions to enhance its functionality while preserving its historical value. The project integrates renewable energy sources (RES), such as photovoltaic panels, and modern energy-saving technologies to reduce the building’s environmental footprint.

In the context of the city’s long history, the intervention combines architectural heritage preservation with forward-looking, sustainable solutions. The building will serve as a model for other heritage buildings, showcasing how it’s possible to integrate cutting-edge energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) technologies into structures of cultural importance. The transformation process will include energy upgrades, improved insulation, and advanced heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to ensure optimal energy use. The PEB upgrade is not only intended to reduce the building's carbon footprint but also to contribute positively to the local community by sharing excess energy generated through renewable sources.

This plan outlines the necessary technical, financial, and regulatory steps
for achieving the project goals.

Project Eduard Dompas - Providing affordable, PEB housing in Alken, Belgium

The Alken case, with its focus on the Eduard Dompas project, consists of 14 newly-built multi-family apartments for social housing. The buildings are heated by a central heating system that combines a gas-fired boiler with heat interface units in each apartment.  In the municipality of Alken, 3.5% of the buildings are used for social housing, which is significantly lower compared to the national average of 6,5%. The social housing company WIL (Wonen In Limburg) is the building owner and is responsible for managing the site.

WIL considers the PEB concept as a good practice example of how to use energy technology optimally. WIL emphasises the importance of incorporating PEB replication in renovation projects. An important driver for rebuilding older dwellings is the trend to build more compact. Older dwellings are often large in terms of available floor surface compared to modern standards. More dwellings can be created on existing building plots, which in terms of energy efficiency,
is also the preferred option. This highlights the tension between the growing demand for social housing and the need for energy efficiency. Here, the replication plans intend to support building owners in their decision-making.

Designing state-of-the-art housing in Helsinki

This replication case participated in the competition organised by the City of Helsinki in 2021. The purpose of the competition was to (1) produce an architecturally high-level, as low-carbon and highly energy-efficient green block as possible, from which a competitive proposal (plan) for the plots is created that is distinctive in terms of cityscape and can be implemented in lot 10656/1-2 as the basis for implementation, (2) meet the ambitious Carbon Neutral Helsinki 2035 goal and (3) choose an implementer or implementer group and a designer or design group for residential apartment building plots in the competition area.

The competition was decided, and the mutual comparison of the competition proposals was 1 PEB as enabler for consumer centred clean energy transition: shared definition and concept (EXCESS D1.1) carried out anonymously based on the qualitative evaluation criteria given in the competition programme, including the goals set in terms of architecture and cityscape as well as low carbon and environmental values. Both lots were reserved for the contractor or group of contractors who presented the best-evaluated competition proposal. This document describes one of the proposals suggesting technology solutions similar to the one developed in the EXCESS project. This proposal did not win the competition, so it did not proceed to the implementation phase, but lessons can be learnt from it.

Social Housing Rebuild in Kuringen, Belgium

In the case of Kuringen, the building under replication does not constitute an independent building; instead, it belongs to a larger district area, which makes the PEB implementation effort a more ambitious job. Instead of renovating, in this redevelopment project, the decision was for the social housing apartments to be demolished, this way being possible to rebuild them in a more compact way, which allows an increase in the number of dwellings and thus employ a central heating system that covers a more significant number of beneficiaries.

The social housing company WIL (Wonen In Limburg) is the building owner and responsible for managing the site. WIL emphasizes the importance of incorporating PEB replication in renovation projects. An important driver for rebuilding older dwellings is the trend to build more compact. Older dwellings are often large in terms of available floor surface compared to modern standards. More dwellings can be created on existing building plots, which in terms of energy efficiency, is also the preferred option. In addition, redeveloping the full building stock helps retrofit the energy system since the new building elements can already be focused on applying newer and more updated, environmentally friendly materials and practices. Older buildings usually hinder the use of such elements because, at the time of their construction, they were not thought to support systems of this kind.

Casa Fernández de Muras - Turning historical buildings into PEBs

The replication case Valladolid constitutes an essential milestone in renovating buildings towards energy efficiency because it falls upon a historic structure. Such projects often have to deal with regulations and restrictions imposed by governments to preserve local cultural heritage. By successfully implementing energy efficiency renovation measures or renewable energy supply technologies in a heritage building, this project in
Valladolid helps to demonstrate that it is possible to reconcile energy efficiency with the imperative of preserving historical and architectural integrity.

The replication case is based on the lessons learned from the EXCESS demo building in Valladolid, a heritage protected building that has sufficient roof space for PV and only 3 floors, important preconditions for becoming a PEB.
The renovation of this heritage building can serve as a powerful example to local, regional, and national governments across Europe. It could potentially pave the way for broader adoption of energy-efficient practices in heritage conservation, contributing significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and promoting sustainable development across Europe.

Upgrading a multifamily residential building in Vienna to PEB status

The present replication plan outlines a replication case in the city of Vienna, which is the capital and most populous city of Austria with just over two million inhabitants. The replication case is located close to the city center and quite typical for about 25% of the Viennese building stock. The building is owned and managed by the Sozialbau AG limited profit housing association. The building is also a demo case of the national flagship project “RENVELOPE – Energy Adaptive Shell”, which is funded by the program Vorzeigeregion Energy – Green Energy Lab of the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund and the KPC (Kommunal Kredit Public Consulting).

Renovating a Vocational Training School in Austria

The Excess demo building in Graz uses a multifunctional facade element that includes integrated energy producing active elements (PV), insulation and activation elements for the use of existing facades as heat/cold storage and
heat dissipation system.

The present replication plan outlines a replication case in the city of Knittelfeld, Styria. The building complex is a vocational training school including a boarding school and consists of three main buildings. It is managed by the Landesimmobilien-Gesellschaft Styria who manages a high number of similar public properties, many of them schools. The building is also a demo case of the national flagship project “RENVELOPE – Energy Adaptive Shell”, which is funded by the program Vorzeigeregion Energy –Green Energy Lab of the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund and the KPC (Kommunal Kredit Public Consulting).

The replication case does not include the energetic activation of the existing facades as the original EXCESS Demo in Graz but builds on the fundamental principals of serial refurbishment with active facade elements. The replication case realizes this by integrating innovative ventilation systems and PV within the newly installed building envelope, ensuring excellent indoor climate comfort for all three buildings while maintaining short renovation times, deep thermal renovation and overall low energy consumption of the active systems, coupled to the facade and roof integrated PV for on-site energy generation

Upscaling from PEB to PED - Vikki, Finland

The EXCESS team defines Positive Energy Building as “an energy efficient building that produces more energy than it uses via renewable sources, with high self-consumption rate and high energy flexibility, over a time span of one year. A high-quality indoor environment is an essential element in the PEB, maintaining the comfort and wellbeing of the building occupants. The PEB is also able to integrate the future technologies like electric vehicles with the motivation to maximise the onsite consumption and also share the surplus renewable energy.”

In the case of Viikki, the concept is widened to several buildings, moving on Positive Energy District (PED) level. The focus is on increasing energy resilience and flexibility by improving the stability of energy prices for consumers by PEB energy concepts relying on high energy efficiency in building envelope and HVAC, geothermal energy, multi-source heat pump solutions and local production with PV/PVT solutions.

NIVALIS Smart Solar City

The replication case of NIVALIS Smart Solar City is located in the municipalities of Gójar and Dílar in Granada. It constitutes the first ecologically sustainable and intelligent urban development project in Spain and is an example on the international stage. The project aims to create a positive energy district, with a pollution-free space that generates energy by harnessing available renewable resources and an E-Mobility system. Capable of integrating diverse and complementary uses, NIVALIS fosters interactions between residents and visitors, creating a balanced model of coexistence through the dissemination of knowledge and the induction of positive behaviours among its inhabitants.

PEB standard for a newly built social housing in Kortessem, Belgium

The project Hachent presents a newly built social housing area located in the municipality of Kortessem in the province of Limburg, Belgium. The plot is heated by a central heating system that combines a gas-fired boiler with heat interface units in each of the 16 dwellings. The social housing company WIL (Wonen In Limburg) is building owner and responsible for managing the site. This includes technical operations, user administration, social services and support for their tenants. While the Flemish Society for Social Housing provides guidelines for new construction and renovation projects, support on technical aspects such as renewable energy technologies and PEB concepts is not included. As a result, the social housing company is responsible for knowledge and capacity building in these areas.

An important driver for rebuilding older dwellings is the trend to build more compact. Older dwellings are often large in terms of available floor surface compared to modern standards. More dwellings can be created on existing building plots, which in terms of energy efficiency, is also the preferred option. This highlights the tension between the growing demand for social housing and the need for energy efficiency. Here, the replication plans intend to support building owners in their decision-making.