A refurbished and improved building stock will help pave the way for a decarbonised and clean energy system, as the building sector is responsible for more than one third of the EU's emissions.
Renovation of all buildings has been singled out in the European Green Deal to drive energy efficiency in the sector.
The upcoming renovation wave strategy will need to address many issues for transforming the existing building stock to net zero standards. Since most of today’s buildings will still be standing in 2050, this is a big challenge. However, construction does not materialise overnight, and that is why timing, and early deployment require working examples for replication.
Factory Zero in Tiel, the Netherlands, is one such working example. It was built as an answer to the lack of prefabricated, integrated components for the renovation of existing buildings.
To illustrate this, on Tuesday 29th September, a webinar and virtual tour through Factory Zero took place. Before the visit to the factory, there was a presentation on the importance of low temperature heating and heat pumps and why countries (and the European institutions) should fully focus on this approach in the renovation wave and all the innovation programmes. The tour of Factory Zero explained how the integration of components and industrialisation can create better options for consumers and enable us to meet our carbon targets at the same time.
Over 200 people connected. The overall impression was that they loved the informative, but also livelier format adapted for these changed and online times. We invite you to watch the (edited) recording of this event, which took place last week, here: https://vimeo.com/464213810
