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Rafael Villar Burke - How to raise the number of nZEBs in Europe? Experts provide their insights into probing questions

October 29th, 2015

As part of the DIRECTION projects outreach activity aimed at maximising replicability potential, Spanish-based partner DRAGADOS held a workshop in June with various experts about the future of nZEBs across our continent.

Rafael Villar Burke

Rafael is an architect and holds of a master in numerical methods in engineering. As part of the IETcc building quality unit, he is coordinator of the energy group which provides technical support to the Ministry for Development regarding the DB-HE energy saving core document and related documents.

Do you think there is a real market for nZEBs in Europe in the short term?

Yes I do, especially given that savings mainly come from how the project is set out rather than from major investment in technical systems or building solutions.

How could nZEBs become more appealing to public and private developers and End Users?

There needs to be changes in business models, changes in legislation and greater social awareness etc. All these issues are important.

Do you think governmental initiatives (regulation, public funding, etc.) are enough to ensure the growth of the nZEBs market or does the private sector need to take the lead? Why?

I think the private sector should look into this. It is a good thing that, as a response to a mature market, there are initiatives drawing on energy efficiency as a way of setting them apart from competitors, especially in terms of objective quality rather than in terms of cost.

I'm sure that public initiatives relating to the directive on energy efficiency will have an enormous impact by driving the sector's know-how and consolidating energy efficiency technology. This is because such initiatives involve energy efficiency measures for a significant proportion of existing public buildings and they apply stringent energy criteria to new public buildings.

Which are, according to your expertise, the main regulation barriers currently hampering the design and construction process of an nZEB? How could these barriers be overcome?

I don't think there are barriers at the norm level currently. With compulsory energy assessments, costs have been internalised and they hamper those who wish to adopt a more stringent approach to energy issues. However I do think that energy efficiency assessments could be better aligned with the requirements of economic feasibility in order to bring down design costs. It would also provide a much clearer picture of the buildings' cost efficiency, especially for high energy efficient buildings.

More information:
DIRECTION Communication Secretariat – email: secretariat@direction-fp7.eu
The DIRECTION project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No. 285443

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