Overview and future challenges of nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) design in Eastern Europe

Attia, Shady and Kurnitski, Jarek and Kosinski, Piotr and Borodinecs, Anatolijs and Deme Bélafi, Zs. and Kistelegdi, István and Krstic, Hrvoje and Moldovan, Macedon and Visa, Ion and Mihailov, Nicolay and Evstatiev, Boris and Banionis, Karolis and Cekon, Miroslav and Vilcekova, Silvia and Struhala, Karel and Brzon, Roman and Laurent, Oriane (2022) Overview and future challenges of nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) design in Eastern Europe. ENERGY AND BUILDINGS, 267 (112165). ISSN 0378-7788

Text 1-s2.0-S037877882200336X-main.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

The European Unions’ ambition for the construction sector is to be carbon neutral by 2030 for new construction. Since 2021, all new buildings in the EU should have been constructed as nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB). However, Eastern European countries struggle to implement the 2018 Energy Performance of Building Directive recast requirements. Next to the economic challenges, equally essential factors hinder renovating the existing residential building stock and adding newly constructed highperformance buildings sourced primarily from renewable energy sources. Therefore, this study provides a cross-study to identify the barriers to nZEB implementation in ten Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. The study was conducted between 2019 and 2021 and provides an overview of prospects for nZEB in Eastern Europe. The study examines the challenges of nZEB plans faced in those countries and provides constructive recommendations. The regulations and definitions regarding nZEB energy performance, cooling and heating energy demand, thermal comfort, onsite renewables, and construction quality were analyzed. Results show that most Eastern European countries are unprepared to comply with the EPBD guidelines and cost-optimality approach. The paper ranks each country and recommends specific measures to refine the nZEB definitions. The paper provides a thorough comparative assessment and benchmarking of select EU geography that can help shift the identified gaps into opportunities for the future development of climate-neutral high-performance buildings.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item