Socio-economic impact of renovation and energy retrofitting of the Gothenburg building stock

Mikael Mangold,Magnus Österbring,Holger Wallbaum,Liane Thuvander,Paula Femenias

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.04.033

Mikael Mangold, Magnus Österbring + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.04.033

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Abstract

The European building stock was renewed at a rapid pace during the period 1950–1975. In many European countries the building stock from this time needs to be renovated. There is an opportunity to introduce energy efficiency measures in the renovation process, but in this process social aspects should also be taken into account. The purpose of this article is to provide an estimate of the economic and societal challenge of renovating and energy retrofitting the aging building stock. Building specific data on energy usage and previous renovation investments made in the multi-family dwellings in Gothenburg (N=5 098) is aligned with data on tenure type and average income. Based on conducted energy retrofitting projects, costs are estimated for renovating and energy retrofitting multi-family dwellings that will reach the service life of 50 years before 2026. It is found that the pace of renovation needs to increase and that there is risk of increasing societal inequity due to rent increases in renovated buildings.

Highlights

In many European countries the building stock increased at a rapid pace during the period 1950–1975 [1]
The Directive 2002/91/EC On the Energy Performance of Buildings proposed the implementation of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) for European buildings as a part of addressing energy retrofitting needs
Buildings from the Millions Homes Program era will reach the 50 year service life in the ten years, and a service life of 50 years is a commonly used as lifespan of buildings in Swedish building stock energy retrofitting studies [13,14]

Summary

Introduction

In many European countries the building stock increased at a rapid pace during the period 1950–1975 [1]. The Directive 2002/91/EC On the Energy Performance of Buildings proposed the implementation of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) for European buildings as a part of addressing energy retrofitting needs. This data has in some European countries been used by researchers to describe the energy usage demand and potential in building energy retrofitting [5,6,7,8]. In Gothenburg, Sweden, 42% of the multi-family dwellings were built during 1961–1975 This era is known as the Million Homes Program named after a large national initiative focused on building one million dwellings to cover an urgent housing need [11,12]. Buildings from the Millions Homes Program era will reach the 50 year service life in the ten years, and a service life of 50 years is a commonly used as lifespan of buildings in Swedish building stock energy retrofitting studies [13,14]

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