Study "Target Parameters for Climate-Neutral Non-Residential Buildings in Building Stock"

The increase of energy efficiency and the supply from renewable energies are essential measures of the German government to achieve its climate policy goals. Especially municipalities face great challenges to achieve the goal of climate neutrality in the public non-residential building stock. Energy Savings Contracting (ESC) offers municipalities an opportunity to implement energy-saving measures and is thus an important building block for increasing the renovation rate in non-residential buildings. In ESC, the efficiency measures are carried out by an energy service provider. However, in order to achieve nationwide climate neutrality in the municipal building stock, reliable targets for investment decisions are needed. This includes a clear definition of climate neutrality, a definition of balance limits, as well as specific target parameters for energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

The study “Climate neutral non-residential buildings” commissioned by the German Energy Agency (dena) started here. The aim of the study was to define climate neutrality for non-residential buildings to determine suitable accounting periods and target corridors, and to define building-specific and building pool-related limit values for a functional performance description in energy saving contracting. In essence, the project was based on various studies on the recording of building classes and consumption structures as well as on concrete simulations of case studies. The study was carried out by adelphi and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE).