Articles

Digitalisation and smart technologies provide a pathway to affordable, adaptable, and scalable solutions. The BuildON project introduces an innovative Smart Transformer Toolbox (STT) to enable the seamless integration of diverse energy management systems, supporting automation, control, and optimisation.

This article explores three innovative examples from across Europe, showcasing how community-focused solutions can support a low-carbon future.

Smart solutions address building needs amid climate, net-congestion, and comfort challenges. A holistic approach, matching the needs of diverse stakeholders and taking existing technology and cybersecurity in account, is essential.

Energy Performance Certificates are key to improving building efficiency, but their reliability and harmonisation remain challenging. With ambitious environmental targets at stake, Europe is racing to unlock their full potential and ensure they drive real change.

Industrialisation and digital knowledge sharing provide a strategic path to accelerating building renovation in Europe. The INFINITE project demonstrates how these approaches address key challenges while ensuring sustainable and scalable outcomes.

What if technology allowed buildings to manage themselves, guaranteeing greater energy efficiency, enhanced comfort, and improved health while quickly paying for themselves through savings on bills? This is already happening—smart buildings are a reality, with various projects demonstrating their advantages.

Exploiting data through innovative services can significantly enhance the energy and environmental performance assessment of the building stock. Key factors for success include data availability, accessibility, and quality. Within the H2020 TIMEPAC project, emphasis has been placed on enhancing the usability, reliability, and enrichment of Energy Performance Certificate data to effectively support urban-scale energy analysis.

As renovation rates remain low across most of Europe, engineers are seeking more convenient and efficient methods to enhance the energy efficiency of buildings. This article explores a modern renovation method that uses prefabricated panels to insulate a building’s envelope more effectively, helping to save energy and reduce heating costs.

Traditional renovation methods often prove slow and disruptive. One effective approach is industrialised renovation, which leverages methods such as automation, digitalisation, standardisation, mass production, and prefabrication to reduce emissions, ensure higher precision, cut costs, and accelerate onsite assembly.

This article briefly presents the H2020 SUREFIT project’s innovative solutions developed to improve residential buildings energy conservation measures and indoor air quality through retrofitting, aiming for near-zero energy buildings.