Energy Transition in Europe | www.energy-cities.eu

Want to solve homelessness and make it so people aren’t paying nearly all their income on housing? Look to Vienna

Pionnière mondiale de l’interventionnisme urbain, la capitale autrichienne a misé dès 1919 sur l’habitat social. Résultat, 62 % des Viennois en bénéficient aujourd’hui.

Authorities in Bucharest’s Sector 1 plan to extend a solar-powered heating and hot water programme. Sustainable heating equipment and the photovoltaic system itself will be funded by the municipality,..

Drastically lowering energy consumption in buildings – and indeed, developing nearly-zero energy buildings (nZEBs) and positive-energy (or ‘smart’) buildings that can interact with the grid – is a cornerstone of Europe’s climate and energy policy.
However, according to European Commission estimates, almost 75% of Europe’s building stock is currently energy inefficient, and the renovation rate ranges from just 0.4 to 1.2%, depending on the country.
Now a Horizon 2020 project, HEART (Holistic Energy and Architectural Retrofit Toolkit), aims to tackle some of the well-documented barriers – including access to finance and the perceived risks of renovation – and equip the social housing sector to lead in mass-scale retrofit.