Ministry of Public Works submits updated long-term strategy for energy-related refurbishment in Spanish construction sector to European Commission

Article 4 of Directive 2012/27/EU on Energy Efficiency required Member States to draft a long-term strategy for energy-related refurbishment in the Spanish construction sector, which should include:

• An overview of the national real estate stock
• Definition of profitable approaches to renovation based on building type and climate region
• Policies and measures capable of stimulating exhaustive and profitable renovations
• A future outlook for steering all types of investments
• A calculation of the energy saving and advantages to be obtained

Besides fully meeting all requirements of the Directive, the Spanish strategy presented by the Ministry of Public Works in 2014 represented an important starting point for the promotion of energy-related refurbishment in the Spanish construction sector, as well as a roadmap enabling guidelines to be drawn up for the various stakeholders involved in the renovation processes regarding actions in their specific fields of action. This strategy was the most highly-valued of the entire European Union.

In accordance with Article 4 of the Directive, this strategy should be updated every three years - in other words, this year 2017 - and should be submitted to the European Commission within the framework of the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency [Spanish acronym: PNAEE], which must also be revised this year. Hence, the ERESEE 2017 drawn up by the Ministry of Public Works is presented as an annex to the revised PNAEE.

The document containing the updated ERESEE 2017, which has just been submitted to the European Commission, confirms that energy consumption in the construction sector has been reduced and that trends in the number of renovated buildings and homes are also positive. The data show that the renovation sector has undergone sustained growth in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

From a qualitative point of view, the ERESEE 2017 analyses the impact of measures already adopted to foster energy efficiency in construction and identifies the new measures considered necessary.

The most significant measures being proposed include an improvement in coordination between the ministerial departments responsible for these issues; encouragement of communication and information campaigns on building energy efficiency; stimulation of public-private collaboration; and the necessary continuity in public aid programmes for energy-related refurbishment.

In this regard, the State Housing Plan 2018-2021 currently being processed includes a specific programme for improving energy efficiency in homes. This will increase the number of homes eligible to receive financial aid under the previous Housing Plan 2013-2016 while also increasing the amount of that aid.