Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
• Energy aspects to be included: heating energy, ventilation and cooling energy all
including auxiliary energy, lighting for non-residential buildings, energy gen-
erated from renewables (self-used and fed into the grid) if produced on-site.
3 Building Sector Policy Framework
Germany is known as one of the most 'energy efficient and greenest economies in
the world while enjoying competitive energy prices and a high level of prosperity'
(BMWi
2010b
). The deployment process of energy efficiency and renewable
energy technologies has given the country the reputation of a forerunner on
European and international level with regard to energy, climate and innovation
strategies (BMWi
2010b
). However, the topic of energy savings and energy supply
was not always just driven by ecological but also economical reasons. With the first
oil crisis in 1973, the country started seeking solutions to the fuel shortage and in
the 1970 s introduced the first energy-related policies. In 1977, the German gov-
ernment implemented the first 'Thermal Insulation Ordinance' defining require-
ments on the energy-related quality of buildings. In 1995, the first national
CO
2
-emission reduction target of 25 % in 2005 compared to 1990 was announced.
Since that time, the regulatory requirements have been tightened continuously.
Nevertheless, about 44 % of the total energy in Germany is still consumed by
buildings (BMWI
2011b
). Therefore, the building sector still holds a large potential
for saving energy and, thus, is the most important sector for achieving the energy-
related targets of the German government. For the determination of the specific
reduction targets, Germany orientates on the strategies of the European Union (EU)
and tries to outreach the EU targets on national level (Bigalke et al.
2012
).
Generally, it is possible to describe the German building sector policy frame-
work as the following: it is based on 4 main pillars: two relate to regulatory
policies (the EnEV and the EEWärmeG) and the others are incentives (KfW
programs and the MAP) and everything is accompanied by a large number of
market instruments (see Fig.
4
).
The 'Energy Saving Ordinance' is the German building code and, apart from
anything else, gives obligations concerning the energy performance in the form of
both the maximum primary energy consumption and building components
depending on the kind and geometry of the building for both new and existing
buildings, see
Sect. 3.2.2
. It is the most important instrument.
The 'Act on the Promotion of Renewable Energies in the Heat Sector' gives
obligations for the usage of renewable energies that have to produce a certain
amount of the used heat in newly constructed buildings, see
Sect. 3.2.3
.
The KfW's most important support programs for the building sector are the
'energy efficient refurbishment', see
Sect. 3.3.1
, and the 'energy efficient con-
struction', see
Sect. 3.2.2
. The 'Market Incentive Programme for Renewable
Energies' provides grants for renewable energy systems in newly constructed and
existing buildings, see
Sect. 3.3.5
.
