Facilitation structures for the renovation of public buildings

Proposals submitted under this topic should present the concrete results which will be delivered by the activities, and demonstrate how these results will contribute to the topic-specific impacts. This demonstration should include a detailed analysis of the starting point and a set of well-substantiated assumptions, and establish clear causality links between the results and the expected impacts.

Proposals should result in long-term facilitation structures which are tested, implemented and operational at the end of the action, i.e. delivering renovation projects to nZEB and ZEB standards.

Proposals should quantify their impacts using the indicators listed below, where relevant, as well as other project-specific performance indicators:

• Number of public buildings renovated to nZEB or ZEB standards targeted through the facilitation structures.
• Average percentage of energy savings per investment project.
• Number of public authorities supported through the services of the facilitation structures.
• Additional amount of funding support (EU and/or private sources) leveraged into the territory thanks to facilitation services.
• Number of jobs directly and indirectly created.

All proposals submitted under this topic should also quantify their impacts related to the following common indicators for the LIFE Clean Energy Transition subprogramme:

• Primary energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year.
• Final energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year.
• Renewable energy generation triggered by the project (in GWh/year).
• Reduction of greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO₂-eq/year).
• Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewable energy) triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).

The impacts of the proposals should be demonstrated during the project and within 5 years after the project lifetime.

The public sector plays a key role in delivering the energy transition, with a unique mandate over their public assets and a unique convening power on actors across the value chain. The European Green Deal’s Renovation Wave^[1] aims to double the renovation rate of buildings by 2030, which requires also massive investment into the public building stock. In line with the REPowerEU plan^[2] to phase out EU dependence on fossil fuel imports, the public sector is called to play a key role in reducing its energy consumption through building renovations. The revised Energy Efficiency Directive (EED)^[3] requires the public sector at local, regional and national levels to reduce their total final energy consumption by 1.9% annually and to renovate at least 3% of the total floor area of their heated and/or cooled buildings annually, which should be transformed into at least nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB) or zero-emission buildings (ZEB).

Currently, a substantial barrier to increased renovation rates in the public sector is to create and sustain in the long-term the financial and technical capacity amongst public authorities to develop projects. In particular, small and medium-sized municipalities often do not have sufficient resources to dedicate staff towards developing a project pipeline.

The challenge remains to upscale renovations of public buildings to nZEB or ZEB standards and to demonstrate the exemplary role of the public authorities in decarbonising their assets and leading the way towards the European clean energy transition. Hence, facilitation structures (e.g. one-stop-shops or similar) are needed at regional and national levels that can support a larger number of public project promoters in designing and delivering ambitious renovation projects in the public sector at scale and capitalising on existing solutions. The experience from the technical assistance facilities (ELENA, H2020 PDA, eee-f) has shown that a range of competences are needed in public project promoters to bring sustainable energy projects alive, namely expertise in technical aspects (energy audits, project design), financial engineering (Energy Performance Contracts, blending different finance sources) and legal aspects (bundling, pooling, procurement, applying Energy Performance Contracts).

Proposals should establish and operate regional/national facilitation structures, for example one-stop-shops, to accelerate the renovation wave in the public sector (e.g. office buildings, social housing, schools, leisure facilities etc.) covering a larger territory and offering to public authorities a comprehensive, all-inclusive service from technical, financial to legal advice, procurement and quality assurance of works.

Actions should clearly focus on the ambitious energy renovation of existing public buildings (e.g. administrative buildings, hospitals, schools) to nZEB or ZEB standards, and should target legal entities operating under public law (e.g. public authorities, public bodies, social/public rental housing operators, etc.) as the main final beneficiaries of the services to be put in place.

Proposals should describe the services that will be developed and offered to public authorities, which should include:

• Reduction of complexity and simplified decision making for public authorities to stimulate demand for building renovation and energy performance improvements.
• Proactive outreach to public authorities and identification of public buildings for energy renovations.
• Renovation of buildings to nZEB and ZEB standards in line with the revised EED.
• Provision of legal assistance to facilitate and prioritise the aggregation of building renovation projects (belonging to one or several public entities) with the aim to upscale overall renovation and attract private investors.
• Development of efficient procurement processes ensuring that renovations are delivered at pace, enabling the bundling/upscaling of renovation projects and ensuring high quality of renovation works as well as facilitating the use of energy performance contracting and third-party financing mechanisms on a long-term contractual basis.
• Financial engineering support to facilitate the use of financial instruments and market-based instruments such as Energy Performance Contracts, refinancing models, Green/White Certificates, energy efficiency obligation schemes, energy efficiency as a service, and to increase blended finance of public and private sources and uptake of EU funding sources such as InvestEU, Recovery and Resilient Facility and EU Cohesion Policy funds including REACT-EU and Just Transition Mechanism.
• Systematic collection, aggregation and assessment of energy related public buildings data for informing local, regional or national policy developments and reporting.

Proposals should clearly describe how they will achieve long-term sustainability of the facilitation structure. For example, this could include a clear outline of a sustainability strategy, business plan and/or dedicated tasks in the proposed work plan to that effect.

Proposals may be submitted by a single applicant or by applicants from a single eligible country.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of a range of EUR 1 million to EUR 1.5 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

[1] Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of Regions, A Renovation Wave for Europe - greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives, COM(2020) 662 final.

[2] Communication from the Commission of 8.3.2022 to the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, REPowerEU: Joint European Action for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy, COM(2022)108 final.

[3] Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on energy efficiency and amending Regulation (EU) 2023/955 (recast).