Abstract
The topic of nearly zero-energy buildings (n-ZEB), introduced by the Directive 2010/31/EU will direct the building market toward ever greater energy efficiency of new buildings. In some contexts, however, the building market for high-efficiency buildings has evolved, in recent years, on the basis of national and regional laws that have contributed to the acceleration of the process. This paper analyses the case study of the Lombardy Region (Italy), which transposed and assimilated the Directive 91/2002 (Energy Performance Building Directive), as of 2006, with regional legislation for energy efficiency of buildings. Within a few years the market for high energy-performance of buildings in the Lombardy Region had grown substantially: to date nearly 7500 energy performance certificates for buildings of Class A and Class A+ have been issued. The paper therefore analyses a success story in what is a field of great current interest, namely n-ZEB buildings. In the first part of the work, the evolution in terms of energy efficiency of the housing market in the Lombardy Region has been analyzed, with particular reference to the high energy-performance of buildings. The second part focuses on a sample of 20 n-ZEB buildings in order to highlight the design choices applied to them.
Highlights
The current development of our society is definitely oriented towards an improvement in environmental sustainability
Performance Building Directive) highlights the fact that buildings will have an impact on long-term energy consumption and new buildings should meet minimum energy performance requirements, tailored to the local climate
This study showed that seven countries have an official definition of very-low-energy buildings, seven countries have an official definition planned, four countries have an existing non-governmental definition, and four countries have both definitions [11]
Summary
The current development of our society is definitely oriented towards an improvement in environmental sustainability. Energy policies will cover both new buildings and existing buildings; the high standards required by the high-performance buildings, nearly-ZEB Annunziata, Frey and Rizzi in their paper [14] conducted a survey questionnaire among the 27 European Union Member States with the aim of providing an overview of the current national regulatory framework, focusing on three aspects: (1) integration of energy efficiency and renewable energy requirements, (2) translation of investments in energy saving into economic value, and (3) commitment towards the “nearly zero-energy”. The study shows that European countries have adopted different approaches in the design of their national regulatory framework This heterogeneity consists of four main factors: different authorities involved in energy regulations, traditional building regulations and enforcement models, different contextual characteristics, and maturity of the country in the implementation of energy efficiency measures. The concreteness of its results is the best demonstration of the effectiveness of a policy
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