A European consortium has launched what it calls a "one-stop-shop" for retrofitting millions of homes for energy efficiency in France, Spain and Ireland.
The aim is to give homeowners a single port of call for advice, financing, design and execution of a renovation.
Called Turnkey Retrofit, the group is now trying to enrol the stakeholders it needs, including trades people in the three countries as well as national building councils, local governments, banks, manufacturers, product manufacturers, energy companies and more.
They say that, enabled by information technology, their platform would speed up the rate of energy-saving retrofits, which is needed to meet the European Union’s 2050 decarbonisation goals.
An estimated 97% of buildings in EU countries need energy retrofits, but at present, the renovation rate languishes at between 0.2% and 1.1% of homes a year.
Turnkey Retrofit says splintered markets, unsuitable financing, regulatory barriers and a lack of skills are all holding back what should be a wave of retrofits.
The group hopes to capitalise on what they expect will be a rush among EU member states to fund more retrofits.
"The French government has just decided to allocate a €2bn financial boost for the energy renovation of housing," said Dominique Caccavelli, the group’s coordinator.Â
"Landlords and co-owners of properties will be reimbursed up to €20,000 on eco-friendly renovations, regardless of their income."
Participating in Turnkey Retrofit, which has received funding from the EU, are nine organisations from France, Spain, Ireland and Belgium, including the National University of Ireland, Galway and the Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE).
They call the platform they are developing "Solutions4Renovation".
It will combine and expand two similar schemes already operating in France.
Image: A meeting of Turnkey Retrofit in June 2020 (Turnkey Retrofit)
