Abstract
With energy transition setting the ground for innovation and new ways of conducting business, one-stop shops (OSSs) have recently gained momentum in the renovation market. By transforming a complex set of multiple-actor decisions into a single entry and customer-centric service, OSSs have the potential of establishing a bridge between the fragmented demand and supply sides of the traditional renovation value chain. To assess the viability of the OSSs model as a vehicle of accelerating decarbonisation efforts in the European building stock, this paper collects and analyses 63 case studies of OSSs across Europe. The study offers insights into the dynamics of their business model, key benefits and ways forward, by explicitly exploring OSSs’ role in incentivising homeowners to decide to renovate. Our findings show that OSSs can be instrumental in addressing the multitude of barriers that prevent homeowners to renovate. With around 100,000 OSSs projects per year, their activity is expected to substantially contribute to the European renovation targets to rise, subject to favourable policy framework, availability of affordable financing solutions and experience sharing within and across countries. With some OSSs already supporting vulnerable households to renovate, OSSs might be well-placed in the future to contribute to tackle energy poverty by assisting in accessing financing and engaging property owners to renovate.
Highlights
The EU has called for carbon neutrality by 2050 in its Communication on the Long Term 2050 climate action strategy3, where energy efficiency was identified as a major contributor to achieve the decarbonisation efforts
While all energy efficiency projects could be good candidates, onestop shops (OSSs) are well equipped in addressing the market fragmentation barrier on both demand and supply sides, overcoming some of the sociotechnical barriers surrounding the decision to renovate in a holistic way (Mahapatra et al, 2013, 2011)
OSSs can be instrumental in accelerating energy efficiency upgrades in the building sector and helping homeowners overcome various organisational hurdles, management difficulties and financial challenges associated with renovation projects
Summary
The EU has called for carbon neutrality by 2050 in its Communication on the Long Term 2050 climate action strategy, where energy efficiency was identified as a major contributor to achieve the decarbonisation efforts. Considering the need to accelerate energy renovations in buildings, the European Commission launched a new specific strategy to promote renovation of buildings in 2020: "A Renovation Wave for Europe – Greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives" (European Commission, 2020a). With current renovation rates ranging from 0.4 to 1.2% per year, this would mean that a renovation rate of at least 2% must be attained This initiative builds on several building-related measures already agreed under the Clean Energy for all European package, such as the requirement for Member States to publish long-term building renovation strategy under the updated Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2018/844, and the national energy and climate plans under the Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate. The EU Structural and Investment Funds, such as the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), European Social Fund (ESF) and Cohesion Fund (CF), have extensively promoted energy efficiency projects (Štreimikienė, 2016)
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