Roughly 97% of the European Union (EU) building stock is not considered energy efficient, and 75–85% of it will still be in use in 2050 (Artola et al., Boosting building renovation: What potential and value for Europe? 2016). Residential buildings account for around two thirds of final energy consumption in European buildings. The rate at which new buildings either replace the old stock or expand the total stock is about 1% per year. Similarly, the current renovation rate of existing buildings in the EU is about 1–2% of the building stock renovated each year. Renovation strategies on building levels need to be derived from a combination of energy efficiency upgrades to buildings and the use of renewable energy to decarbonize the energy supply, on a district or city scale. IEA EBC Annex 75 subtask D2 focuses on promoting cost-effective building renovation at district level combining energy efficiency and renewable energy systems, by focusing on the business models that can make implementation possible. This paper intends to provide an overview of the business model archetypes that can support the development of district demand and/or supply of energy-efficient building renovations and/or renewable energy solutions by targeting various types of stakeholders. It builds upon existing literature to gain insights into the current distributed energy business model landscape. Further, implementation strategies are identified that focus on a holistic evaluation of the expected energy and CO₂ performance of the site and optimized infrastructure investment pathways.

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This report, therefore, focuses on the following objectives: - Give an overview of various policy options that could target the district level, considering existing and emerging policy instruments with the potential to be successfully applied within that context, and how policy challenges specifically occurring in an urban context can be overcome; - Develop, test and use a methodology which can be applied to identify best-practice policy instruments for specific districts by evaluating stakeholder’s acceptance of proposed policy instruments and the effects and impacts stakeholders expect for reducing carbon emissions and energy use in buildings in cities at the district level, combining both energy efficiency measures and renewable energy measures; - Illustrate the development and assessment of innovative local policy instruments that could target the district level for achieving energy renovations and renewable energy systems; - Provide the necessary background for recommendations to policymakers and their key partners on how they can influence the uptake of cost-effective combinations of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy measures in building renovation at the district level.@en

This report aims to identify both barriers that hinder energy-efficient renovation of buildings and drivers enabling the implementation of energy and cost-effective renovation of buildings and energy supply systems at the district level. Fifteen success stories regarding barriers and drivers were analysed in the first step. These success stories consisted of projects from seven European countries (Austria, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) where energy-efficient and/or renewable energy measures had been successfully implemented at the district level. In the next step, different stakeholders involved in energy renovations at the district level were interviewed about their experiences to identify barriers and drivers. In total, 39 in-depth interviews from eight countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) were carried out. The stakeholders included policymakers, renovation solution suppliers, energy solution suppliers, clients and beneficiaries, financing intermediaries and other intermediaries. The barriers and drivers were divided into the following categories: policy, legal aspects, economic aspects, social aspects, communication, technical aspects, and knowledge and training.@en

The present report aims to identify the key characteristics of business models important for upscaling business from the building to the district level. Understanding those characteristics and gaining insights about the opportunities the BMs offer for the different stakeholders will support the implementation of the renovation and the stakeholder dialogue. The methods implemented in the study included desk research and quantitative analysis of semi-structured interviews.@en