Abstract
Looking at the recent developments, the European Union (EU) aims to become a zero carbon community. For the building sector, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) was recast in 2010 introducing the definition of the nearly zero energy building (NZEB) levels to construct all new buildings at this level by the end of 2020. The last revision of the directive in 2018 also promotes the renovation of the building stock to the NZEB levels. In the paper, it was proposed to define the nearly zero energy levels for settlements. This way, it was aimed to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of reaching the nearly zero energy levels at larger scales than single buildings. Settlement level studies, including the district energy systems, intended to reveal the energy efficiency measures which lead to optimal cost levels for more than one building. Key parameters were examined for a new settlement design which may be beneficial for the large-scale renewable energy system implementation and district energy system (DES) usage with high energy performance buildings.
Highlights
Energy has been one of the key issues of all the states for financial balances, external affairs, and internal politics
Energy performance of buildings directive (EPBD) 2010 mandated throughout the European Union (EU) all new public buildings, by the end of 2018 and all new buildings, by end of 2020, to be constructed as nearly zero energy building (NZEB) [3]
The cost-optimal methodology was applied to each reference buildings to reach the specific energy performance levels of buildings, which are costoptimal and high energy performance levels
Summary
Energy has been one of the key issues of all the states for financial balances, external affairs, and internal politics. EU’s activities objecting the building sector energy efficiency can be reviewed mainly under the directives on the energy performance of buildings. The first one was published in 2002 to set and assure the minimum energy performance requirements for both new and existing buildings [2]. Energy performance of buildings directive (EPBD) was recast in 2010 introducing new terms as cost-optimal and nearly zero energy levels for building energy performance. It introduced a methodology framework, cost-optimal methodology, to determine these levels. EPBD was revised in 2018 which was primarily focused on increasing the building stock renovation rate to the required energy performance levels
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