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The presented Report forms Deliverable D6.2 resulted from the realization of Workpackage WP.6.3 titled “Overview of market drivers, fiscal measures and subsidies” in frame of the EU-Project “Geothermal communities – demonstrating the cascaded use of geothermal energy for district heating with small scale RES integration and retrofitting measures” (GEOCOM). The following seven countries were covered by WP6.3 works and this Deliverable D6.2: o Macedonia, o Hungary, o Italy, o Poland, o Romania, o Serbia, o Slovakia. The work was done with the contribution of all GEOCOM Project Partner teams and appointed experts, coordinated, interpreted and summarized by the Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of PAS team, WP6 leader. FP7

The EU has set clear targets regarding energy conservation of buildings and heavily supports activities towards achieving these targets on a European scale. The Green Deal, renovation wave, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) are some examples of EU's actions. For more than a decade, Energy Performance Certificates provide detailed data about the current energy needs of a building/building unit as well as information about the building construction and systems. A Building Renovation Passport (BRP) has, on a European level lately, been conceived as a tool that can stimulate cost-effective renovation in the form of a long-term basis, step-by-step deep renovation roadmap following defined quality criteria, and outline energy renovation measures that will improve the energy performance of the building. A Digital Building Logbook (DBL) is another tool that can serve as an archive where all building information can be stored and continuously updated. In this way, a full record of the building history will be electronically available with data regarding construction plans and permits, maintenance and system replacement activities, energy and heat consumption and production, etc. Building Renovation Passports and the Digital Building Logbook are tools that can help in achieving energy efficiency in existing buildings and contribute to reaching the EU renovation wave goals. The objective of this report is to investigate how the current EPC schemes best make the link towards the BRP and the DBL to further incentivise and stimulate cost-effective deep energy renovations of buildings across Europe. Three surveys were carried out to collect relevant information about the current status of the EPC data records and to identify stakeholders' potential needs, perceptions, thoughts and expectations, regarding a future connection between the EPC and the BRP or DBL. These surveys were prepared in two forms: using an excel file format circulated via email, and through an online questionnaire. Their completion was carried out by 16 countries. Regarding the EPCs, the state or regional energy agencies are the owner of the EPC data records and make full use of them. Their current main usage is for statistical reasons in the majority of the countries and their access is publicly available in half of the responding countries. Many common data is stored in the EPC database which can be linked with other tools (half of the EPC databases are already linked with another source). Regarding the BRP, a review of existing European schemes showed that successful BRPs have combined the renovation advice with financial support, legal requirements and/or communication campaigns. An important factor of the BRP is that it should be issued by a qualified expert and should provide customised measures for the specific building together with the investment costs per renovation measure(s). The DBL analysis showed that it should provide access to building information and contribute to better decision-making for future interventions as well as operation, use and maintenance records. The building owner/user is proposed to have full access to the logbook and provide/input about energy bills and building plans/construction materials info. An important aspect is that every time the building undergoes intervention works, the DBL should be updated accordingly. The most important barrier is the lack of motivation to update the DBL contents followed by the absence of synergies and consistency with other tools. Another interesting finding is that both BRP and DBL should be fed automatically by EPC data without any user interference. There is a clear possible interconnection between EPC data and BRP and DBL future contents. In addition, BRP can be an instrument to increase the renovation rates and DBLs are necessary for the management of buildings' information. The linkage of EPC data and BRP and DBL can be strengthened by introducing BRP and DBL as voluntary schemes under national incentives and should be fully implemented once they have demonstrated acceptance by the stakeholders.

Nature-based solutions may actively reduce hydro-meteorological risks in urban areas as a part of climate change adaptation. However, the main reason for the increasing uptake of this type of solution is their many benefits for the local inhabitants, including recreational value. Previous studies on recreational value focus on studies of existing nature sites that are often much larger than what is considered as new NBS for flood adaptation studies in urban areas. We thus prioritized studies with smaller areas and nature types suitable for urban flood adaptation and divided them into four common nature types for urban flood adaptation: sustainable urban drainage systems, city parks, nature areas and rivers. We identified 23 primary valuation studies, including both stated and revealed preference studies, and derived two value transfer functions based on meta-regression analysis on existing areas. We investigated trends between values and variables and found that for the purpose of planning of new NBS the size of NBS and population density were determining factors of recreational value. For existing NBS the maximum travelling distance may be included as well. We find that existing state-of-the-art studies overestimate the recreational with more than a factor of 4 for NBS sizes below 5 ha. Our results are valid in a European context for nature-based solutions below 250 ha and can be applied across different NBS types and sizes.

Abstract Breakthrough alternative technologies are urgently required to alleviate the critical need to decarbonise our energy supply. We showcase non-conventional approaches to battery and solar energy conversion and storage (ECS) system designs that harness key attributes of immiscible electrolyte solutions, especially the membraneless separation of redox active species and ability to electrify certain liquid–liquid interfaces. We critically evaluate the recent development of membraneless redox flow batteries based on biphasic systems, where one redox couple is confined to an immiscible ionic liquid or organic solvent phase, and the other couple to an aqueous phase. Common to all solar ECS devices are the abilities to harvest light, leading to photo-induced charge carrier separation, and separate the products of the photo-reaction, minimising recombination. We summarise recent progress towards achieving this accepted solar ECS design using immiscible electrolyte solutions in photo-ionic cells, to generate redox fuels, and biphasic “batch” water splitting, to generate solar fuels.

AbstractBuildings are responsible for approximately 36% of carbon emissions in the European Union. Besides, gradual aging and a lack of adaptability and flexibility of buildings often lead to destructive interventions, resulting not only in higher costs but also in a large amount of construction and demolition waste (CDW). Recently, an innovative system (Ref. VEEP project) has been developed to recycle CDW for the manufacturing of energy‐efficient prefabricated concrete elements (PCE) for new building construction. By applying life cycle costing (LCC) and life cycle assessment (LCA), this study aimed to determine whether the use of VEEP PCE leads to lower carbon emission and lower associated costs over the life cycle of an exemplary four‐story residential building in the Netherlands than a business‐as‐usual (BAU) PCE scenario. This paper provides a case study on the alignment and/or integration of LCA and LCC in an independent and a combined manner (via monetization). This study examines how the internalization of carbon emission and discount rate will affect the final life cycle costs over a 40‐year life span. The simulation results show that the key to economic viability and environmental soundness of VEEP PCE is to reduce production cost and to optimize the thermal performance of the novel isolation material Aerogel; internalization of external cost monetarizes the environmental advantage thus slightly expands the cost advantage of low carbon options, but leads to larger uncertainty about the LCC result.

The bioeconomy can support Europe’s transition to a low-carbon economy and help to meet key international, European and member state sustainability targets through the provision of bio-based products and energy derived from sustainably sourced biomass. A successful implementation of a bio-based economy in Europe will, however, require a profound transformation of our production and consumption patterns. Consumer behavior will play a major role in supporting the successful transition to a bio-based economy. This paper uses a structured quantitative survey approach to gain an understanding of consumer perspectives in relation to bio-based products. Conducted among 18–75-year-old consumers in Ireland and the Netherlands, the study indicates that consumers in both countries have a relatively positive outlook regarding bio-based products, with Irish consumers showing a slightly more positive outlook. The study finds that a larger majority of Irish consumers would prefer buying bio-based products as opposed to fossil-based products, while Irish consumers also have a slightly more positive impression than Dutch consumers that their consumer choices can be beneficial for the environment.