The trade-off between urban building stock retrofit, local renewable energy production and the roll-out of 4G district heating networks

  • Case Studies
  • 03 March 2020
  • by EnergyVille / VITO

Case study modelling for 9 urban districts in Flanders, Belgium

Urban retrofit is a major field of action for realising the European Union’s energy and climate goals. The challenge laying ahead is complex: there is a wide variety of solutions that can be applied in different mixes, the related costs are high, and the social impact of the needed interventions is considerable. With a view on identifying optimal urban retrofit strategies from both an environmental and an economic point of view, EnergyVille/VITO conducted a study to analyse the trade-off between increasing the energy efficiency of the existing building stock on the one hand and supplying it with renewable energy and/or sustainable district heating on the other hand. Realizing higher levels of energy efficiency indeed allows to reduce the remaining sustainable energy needs and vice versa. But how to prioritize them?

 

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