This Directive promotes the improvement of the energy performance of buildings within the Union, taking into account outdoor climatic and local conditions, as well as indoor climate requirements and cost-effectiveness.
Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings (recast)
Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings (recast)
Article 1 Subject matter
1.
2.
This Directive lays down requirements as regards:
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the common general framework for a methodology for calculating the integrated energy performance of buildings and building units;
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the application of minimum requirements to the energy performance of new buildings and new building units;
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the application of minimum requirements to the energy performance of:
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existing buildings, building units and building elements that are subject to major renovation;
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building elements that form part of the building envelope and that have a significant impact on the energy performance of the building envelope when they are retrofitted or replaced; and
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technical building systems whenever they are installed, replaced or upgraded;
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national plans for increasing the number of nearly zero-energy buildings;
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energy certification of buildings or building units;
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regular inspection of heating and air-conditioning systems in buildings; and
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independent control systems for energy performance certificates and inspection reports.
3.
The requirements laid down in this Directive are minimum requirements and shall not prevent any Member State from maintaining or introducing more stringent measures. Such measures shall be compatible with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. They shall be notified to the Commission.
Article 2 Definitions
For the purpose of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:
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‘building’ means a roofed construction having walls, for which energy is used to condition the indoor climate;
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‘nearly zero-energy building’ means a building that has a very high energy performance, as determined in accordance with Annex I. The nearly zero or very low amount of energy required should be covered to a very significant extent by energy from renewable sources, including energy from renewable sources produced on-site or nearby;
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‘technical building system’ means technical equipment for space heating, space cooling, ventilation, domestic hot water, built-in lighting, building automation and control, on-site electricity generation, or a combination thereof, including those systems using energy from renewable sources, of a building or building unit;
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‘building automation and control system’ means a system comprising all products, software and engineering services that can support energy efficient, economical and safe operation of technical building systems through automatic controls and by facilitating the manual management of those technical building systems;
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‘energy performance of a building’ means the calculated or measured amount of energy needed to meet the energy demand associated with a typical use of the building, which includes, inter alia, energy used for heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water and lighting;
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‘primary energy’ means energy from renewable and non-renewable sources which has not undergone any conversion or transformation process;
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‘energy from renewable sources’ means energy from renewable non-fossil sources, namely wind, solar, aerothermal, geothermal, hydrothermal and ocean energy, hydropower, biomass, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas and biogases;
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‘building envelope’ means the integrated elements of a building which separate its interior from the outdoor environment;
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‘building unit’ means a section, floor or apartment within a building which is designed or altered to be used separately;
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‘building element’ means a technical building system or an element of the building envelope;
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‘major renovation’ means the renovation of a building where:
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the total cost of the renovation relating to the building envelope or the technical building systems is higher than 25 % of the value of the building, excluding the value of the land upon which the building is situated; or
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more than 25 % of the surface of the building envelope undergoes renovation;
Member States may choose to apply option (a) or (b).
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‘European standard’ means a standard adopted by the European Committee for Standardisation, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation or the European Telecommunications Standards Institute and made available for public use;
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‘energy performance certificate’ means a certificate recognised by a Member State or by a legal person designated by it, which indicates the energy performance of a building or building unit, calculated according to a methodology adopted in accordance with Article 3;
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‘cogeneration’ means simultaneous generation in one process of thermal energy and electrical and/or mechanical energy;
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‘cost-optimal level’ means the energy performance level which leads to the lowest cost during the estimated economic lifecycle, where:
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the lowest cost is determined taking into account energy-related investment costs, maintenance and operating costs (including energy costs and savings, the category of building concerned, earnings from energy produced), where applicable, and disposal costs, where applicable; and
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the estimated economic lifecycle is determined by each Member State. It refers to the remaining estimated economic lifecycle of a building where energy performance requirements are set for the building as a whole, or to the estimated economic lifecycle of a building element where energy performance requirements are set for building elements.
The cost-optimal level shall lie within the range of performance levels where the cost benefit analysis calculated over the estimated economic lifecycle is positive;
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‘air-conditioning system’ means a combination of the components required to provide a form of indoor air treatment, by which temperature is controlled or can be lowered;
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‘heating system’ means a combination of the components required to provide a form of indoor air treatment, by which the temperature is increased;
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‘heat generator’ means the part of a heating system that generates useful heat using one or more of the following processes:
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the combustion of fuels in, for example, a boiler;
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the Joule effect, taking place in the heating elements of an electric resistance heating system;
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capturing heat from ambient air, ventilation exhaust air, or a water or ground heat source using a heat pump;
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‘energy performance contracting’ means energy performance contracting as defined in point (27) of Article 2 of Directive 2012/27/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council(1);
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‘boiler’ means the combined boiler body-burner unit, designed to transmit to fluids the heat released from burning;
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‘effective rated output’ means the maximum calorific output, expressed in kW, specified and guaranteed by the manufacturer as being deliverable during continuous operation while complying with the useful efficiency indicated by the manufacturer;
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‘heat pump’ means a machine, a device or installation that transfers heat from natural surroundings such as air, water or ground to buildings or industrial applications by reversing the natural flow of heat such that it flows from a lower to a higher temperature. For reversible heat pumps, it may also move heat from the building to the natural surroundings;
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‘district heating’ or ‘district cooling’ means the distribution of thermal energy in the form of steam, hot water or chilled liquids, from a central source of production through a network to multiple buildings or sites, for the use of space or process heating or cooling;
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‘micro isolated system’ means micro isolated system as defined in point 27 of Article 2 of Directive 2009/72/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(2).
Article 2a Long-term renovation strategy
1.
Each Member State shall establish a long-term renovation strategy to support the renovation of the national stock of residential and non-residential buildings, both public and private, into a highly energy efficient and decarbonised building stock by 2050, facilitating the cost-effective transformation of existing buildings into nearly zero-energy buildings. Each long-term renovation strategy shall encompass:
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an overview of the national building stock, based, as appropriate, on statistical sampling and expected share of renovated buildings in 2020;
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the identification of cost-effective approaches to renovation relevant to the building type and climatic zone, considering potential relevant trigger points, where applicable, in the life-cycle of the building;
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policies and actions to stimulate cost-effective deep renovation of buildings, including staged deep renovation, and to support targeted cost-effective measures and renovation for example by introducing an optional scheme for building renovation passports;
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an overview of policies and actions to target the worst performing segments of the national building stock, split-incentive dilemmas and market failures, and an outline of relevant national actions that contribute to the alleviation of energy poverty;
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policies and actions to target all public buildings;
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an overview of national initiatives to promote smart technologies and well-connected buildings and communities, as well as skills and education in the construction and energy efficiency sectors; and
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an evidence-based estimate of expected energy savings and wider benefits, such as those related to health, safety and air quality.
2.
In its long-term renovation strategy, each Member State shall set out a roadmap with measures and domestically established measurable progress indicators, with a view to the long-term 2050 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the Union by 80-95 % compared to 1990, in order to ensure a highly energy efficient and decarbonised national building stock and in order to facilitate the cost-effective transformation of existing buildings into nearly zero-energy buildings. The roadmap shall include indicative milestones for 2030, 2040 and 2050, and specify how they contribute to achieving the Union’s energy efficiency targets in accordance with Directive 2012/27/EU.
3.
To support the mobilisation of investments into the renovation needed to achieve the goals referred to in paragraph 1, Member States shall facilitate access to appropriate mechanisms for:
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the aggregation of projects, including by investment platforms or groups, and by consortia of small and medium-sized enterprises, to enable investor access as well as packaged solutions for potential clients;
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the reduction of the perceived risk of energy efficiency operations for investors and the private sector;
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the use of public funding to leverage additional private-sector investment or address specific market failures;
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guiding investments into an energy efficient public building stock, in line with Eurostat guidance; and
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accessible and transparent advisory tools, such as one-stop-shops for consumers and energy advisory services, on relevant energy efficiency renovations and financing instruments.
4.
The Commission shall collect and disseminate, at least to public authorities, best practices on successful public and private financing schemes for energy efficiency renovation as well as information on schemes for the aggregation of small-scale energy efficiency renovation projects. The Commission shall identify and disseminate best practices on financial incentives to renovate from a consumer perspective taking into account cost-efficiency differences between Member States.
5.
To support the development of its long-term renovation strategy, each Member State shall carry out a public consultation on its long-term renovation strategy prior to submitting it to the Commission. Each Member State shall annex a summary of the results of its public consultation to its long-term renovation strategy.
Each Member State shall establish the modalities for consultation in an inclusive way during the implementation of its long-term renovation strategy.
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Each Member State shall annex the details of the implementation of its most recent long-term renovation strategy to its long-term renovation strategy, including on the planned policies and actions.
7.
Each Member State may use its long-term renovation strategy to address fire safety and risks related to intense seismic activity affecting energy efficiency renovations and the lifetime of buildings.
8.
Each Member State's long-term renovation strategy shall be submitted to the Commission as part of its final integrated national energy and climate plan referred to in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council(3). As a derogation from Article 3(1) of that Regulation, the first long-term renovation strategy under paragraph 1 of this Article shall be submitted to the Commission by 10 March 2020.
Article 3 Adoption of a methodology for calculating the energy performance of buildings
Member States shall apply a methodology for calculating the energy performance of buildings in accordance with the common general framework set out in Annex I.
This methodology shall be adopted at national or regional level.
Article 4 Setting of minimum energy performance requirements
1.
Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that minimum energy performance requirements for buildings or building units are set with a view to achieving cost-optimal levels. The energy performance shall be calculated in accordance with the methodology referred to in Article 3. Cost-optimal levels shall be calculated in accordance with the comparative methodology framework referred to in Article 5 once the framework is in place.
Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that minimum energy performance requirements are set for building elements that form part of the building envelope and that have a significant impact on the energy performance of the building envelope when they are replaced or retrofitted, with a view to achieving cost-optimal levels.
When setting requirements, Member States may differentiate between new and existing buildings and between different categories of buildings.
These requirements shall take account of general indoor climate conditions, in order to avoid possible negative effects such as inadequate ventilation, as well as local conditions and the designated function and the age of the building.
A Member State shall not be required to set minimum energy performance requirements which are not cost-effective over the estimated economic lifecycle.
Minimum energy performance requirements shall be reviewed at regular intervals which shall not be longer than five years and, if necessary, shall be updated in order to reflect technical progress in the building sector.
2.
Member States may decide not to set or apply the requirements referred to in paragraph 1 to the following categories of buildings:
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buildings officially protected as part of a designated environment or because of their special architectural or historical merit, in so far as compliance with certain minimum energy performance requirements would unacceptably alter their character or appearance;
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buildings used as places of worship and for religious activities;
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temporary buildings with a time of use of two years or less, industrial sites, workshops and non-residential agricultural buildings with low energy demand and non-residential agricultural buildings which are in use by a sector covered by a national sectoral agreement on energy performance;
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residential buildings which are used or intended to be used for either less than four months of the year or, alternatively, for a limited annual time of use and with an expected energy consumption of less than 25 % of what would be the result of all-year use;
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stand-alone buildings with a total useful floor area of less than 50 m2.