Legislation to foment the use of renewable energies and solar thermal energy in building construction: The case of Spain - Solar Energy Sciences and Engineering Applications - page 648

Graph 20.2.3 Household energy use. Worldwide trends in energy use and efficiency (International
Energy Agency, 2005).
EU member states should thus take measures such that, by 31 December 2020, all
new constructions will be nearly zero-energy buildings.
In households, energy is consumed for different purposes. Graph 20.2.3 shows the
general distribution of energy use in households.
Energy consumption due to thermal processes in buildings accounts for 69% of
the total consumption and is primarily for heating and cooling as well as domestic hot
water. These statistics reflect the importance of initiatives to improve the efficiency of
energy consumption specifically for these residential uses and also to encourage the
use of renewable energy sources for household consumption.
20.3 APPLICATION OF EU REGULATIONS IN MEMBER STATES:
THE CASE IN SPAIN
Spain is an especially interesting context since the successful application of EU reg-
ulations has led to the design of policies that promote renewable energies. More
specifically, in 2009, 9.5% of the total energy consumption (see Graph 20.3.1) and
28.2% of the electricity demand were covered with renewable energies (REE, 2011).
Since the target specified in the European directive is for renewables to account for 20%
of the total energy consumption in 2020, Spain has to increase its use of renewable
energy from 9.5% in 2009 to 20% in 2020.
As previously mentioned, energy consumption in building construction accounts
for 40% of the total consumption in the EU (see Graph 20.2.2). For this reason,
Directives 2009/28/EC and 2010/28/EC regard building construction as a strategic
sector and establish measures to foment energy efficiency and the use of renewable
energies in this area 12 . To achieve the targets in these directives, EU countries, including
Spain, implemented corresponding action plans. In Spain, this framework took the
12 Directive 2009/28/EC , Article 13.4: “By 31 December 2014, Member States shall, in their
building regulations and codes or by other means with equivalent effect, where appropriate,