Towards Energy Efficient Housing – the importance of local energy planning

• A strategy for local energy planning must be in place in order to transform the local energy system and must comprise all relevant sectors and decision makers, i.e. include the residential sector with its relevant stakeholders. Thus, the housing sector cannot be treated inisolation but should rather be part of an analysis which takes a municipal energy systems perspective. This paper reports from an EU IEE (Intelligent Energy Europe) supported work named PATH-TO-RES which develops a methodology to be used as support tool for local energyplanning. The work uses a number of local case studies (Göteborg (SE), Valencia (ES), Dunkerque (FR), Gdansk (PL) and Arnhem and Lochem (NL)) to develop a step-by-stepassessment which can evaluate and define Pathways to renewable and efficient energy systems.A Pathway is a cost efficient way to bridge over from the present energy system to a sustainable system. In short, the proposed methodology starts with a detailed description of the present system (energy infrastructure as well as decision makers and stakeholders) and, based on this, anumber of steps are defined with the aim to serve as check points to ensure that one or more Pathways can be formulated which describe how the local energy system can be transformed to comply with goals and targets.In order to describe the energy systems of the six case studies in a common way, a schematic model called a RES-diagram (RES=Reference Energy System) has been applied, from which the structure (i.e. components, flows and connections) and energy balance of the systems can bedetermined. In the six municipalities studied considerable variation of population, land area and scale and characteristics of the existing energy systems exist. Differences and similarities between the six systems are highlighted and the paper discusses pre-requisites and conditions for municipal energy planning, based on energy systems of the case study regions.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Övrig annan teknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Naturresursteknik -- Annan naturresursteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Environmental Engineering -- Other Environmental Engineering (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Husbyggnad (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Building Technologies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Energy planning

Municipal

Buildings

Energy efficiency

Residential sector

Local

Publication and Content Type

kon (subject category)

ref (subject category)