Authors: Charikleia Karakosta, Zoi Mylona, Jason Papathanasiou & John Psarras
Published in: ICDSST 2023: Decision Support Systems XIII. Decision Support Systems in An Uncertain World: The Contribution of Digital Twins
Year of publication: 2023
Summary: Nowadays, boosting the implementation of energy efficiency measures in buildings and subsequently, mainstreaming energy efficiency financing is of paramount importance for the European Union towards achieving its goal of carbon-neutrality by 2050. Unfortunately, statistics have shown that a lot of effort is needed to achieve the Europe’s targets, since energy efficiency is not yet considered as an attractive investment by the financial sector. The lack of expertise and knowledge, as well as the different perspective of project developers and financing institutions are some indicative challenges that have to be overcome. Specific to energy efficiency in buildings this is reflected by the current insufficient trends observed in the renovation rates of buildings, which reveal the urgent need for action since this is the largest consumer of energy in Europe. Furthermore, a combination of public and private funding through innovative financing instruments is required to overcome current barriers that prevent mobilization of necessary investments. The aim of this paper is to set up a role-based methodological approach for the deployment of an integrated matchmaking mechanism on an ICT platform to boost energy efficiency investments in an easy-access and trust-worthy way. The methodology envisages to follow a multidisciplinary perspective which takes into account the interactions between various key factors, such as stakeholders and barriers, so as to facilitate the complex set of decision-making actions for building renovation. The core of concept centres around the definition of the roles of the potential users of a big data for buildings platform, their interdependency and requirements with the ultimate purpose of accelerating renovation rates.
Authors: Ioanna Andreoulaki, Aikaterini Papapostolou, Charikleia Karakosta, Filippos Dimitrios Mexis, and John Psarras
Published in: 9th International Symposium & 31st National Conference on Operational Research - Book of Proceedings
Year of publication: 2023
Summary: Although it is evident that the implementation of energy efficiency measures, upgrades of energy consuming systems and installation of sustainable technologies are effective ways of reducing energy needs and consumption in buildings, renovation rates in the EU remain quite low. A plethora of factors might hinder the application of retrofitting actions in the building sector, including technical issues, financial barriers, behavioral aspects, as well as risks related to the economy and energy market. With the aim of incentivising energy efficiency investments in buildings, an approach has been followed to identify, explore and categorise the most common financing instruments that promote retrofitting actions in the building sector. Towards this direction, a literature review of financing tools for renovation projects is conducted. Specific examples of renovation projects and financing schemes in European countries are presented, to validate the correlation between building and financing typologies. Current barriers and issues that need to be addressed to encourage energy efficiency financing and, thus, increase renovation rates are highlighted. The findings of the research provide useful insights for market actors interested in energy efficiency financing and stakeholders engaged in renovation projects. Moreover, the conclusions of the analysis can become a starting point for further research on the topic, setting a basis for standardising sustainable investments in the building sector by matching renovation projects with the appropriate financing methods.
Authors: Aikaterini Papapostolou, Ioanna Andreoulaki, Konstantinos Touloumis, Panagiotis Kapsalis, and John Psarras
Published in: 9th International Symposium & 31st National Conference on Operational Research - Book of Proceedings
Year of publication: 2023
Summary: Due to the severe consequences of the climate crisis, which is largely due to gas emissions ensued by energy consumption worldwide, reaching energy transition targets has become an important pillar of energy polices. A considerable percentage of total CO2 emissions is generated because of energy usage in buildings. However, the rate of renovations aiming to improve energy performance of the European building stock remains low. The ENERGATE project aims to encourage financing of retrofitting actions in buildings, by developing a web-based marketplace to provide a communication medium and offer renovation related services to various engaged parties. Thus, the supply side (building owners, asset managers etc.) needs to enter data relevant to the buildings to the ENERGATE platform, so that the products (i. e. buildings and corresponding retrofitting measures) can be matched with the demand side (investors, ESCOs etc.). In this paper, existing frameworks which aim to model data relevant to buildings are investigated and, by examining several datasets, potential variables which influence a building’s likelihood of being renovated, as well as retrofitting measures that could apply to it, are explored. The aim is to generate a Common Data Model, which could be used as a basis to develop the building profiles within the ENERGATE platform. Besides, the conducted research could provide useful insights for stakeholders engaging in retrofitting projects, by pointing out the most important elements of the building’s characteristics which should be examined in order to determine the most appropriate renovation strategies.
Authors: Panagiotis Kapsalis, Aikaterini Papapostolou, Konstantinos Touloumis, Ioanna Andreoulaki, Zoi Mylona, Haris Doukas
Published in: 14th International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications(IISA 2023)
Year of publication: 2023
Summary: Nowadays it becomes evident that there is a lack of Information Technology systems that decision making as the creation of financing schemes for the building sector. In this context an information system acting as a marketplace enables data driven components that will be exploited by end users to perform bids and offers for building investments. This work focuses on the functional description of the EU-funded project ENERGATE marketplace for energy efficiency investments. ENERGATE System Architecture fosters data sharing, interoperability and the integration of data driven techniques, underlying the design principles to be followed having alignment with existing EU standards and protocols.
