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This paper presents results of a comprehensive stated choice experiment among house owners in Germany with combustion engine cars, plug-in hybrid electric cars, and battery electric cars with or without a range extender as choice options. Electric cars are still well away from economic viability. But it is shown that owners of energy-efficient houses do have a substantially higher willingness to pay for electric cars compared with owners of conventional houses. That is, they will be among the first to adopt electric cars and they can be addressed straight forward with measures to promote electric cars. Since there are moderate but various support programmes relevant to this group on the national, regional, and local level combined hands-on information should be provided in specific guidelines. Further, since it was found that owners of energy-efficient houses alike owners of conventional houses tend to acquire larger and more powerful cars it should be noted that a successful promotion of EVs will not counter the trend towards bigger and more powerful cars. • Owners of energy-efficient houses have a much higher WTP for EVs than owners of conventional houses. • No effect of the annual mileage was found in favour of EVs. • Large shares of both groups of house owners intend to buy larger and more powerful cars. • The discrete choice experiment reveals a strong interaction of the range extender on the WTP for batteries. • Hands-on information of the various measures to promote EVS relevant for this group should be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local authorities are key actors for implementing innovative energy efficiency technologies (retrofitting) to reduce end-use energy demand and consequently reduce negative effects of high energy use such as climate change and public budget deficits. This paper reports the results of a large-scale survey of German municipalities by assessing drivers and barriers for deploying LED street lighting as an example of innovative retrofits. The results indicate that competencies and capacities, transparency of the underlying technology base, and a clear proposition of savings are crucial drivers for municipal retrofitting engagement. Most significant barriers include lack of experience, the tendency to wait for future improvements of innovative energy efficiency technologies, and existing contracts with energy suppliers, manufacturers, or other conventional retrofitting contractors. Investments in municipal competency building (both regarding technologies and procurement) as well as diffusing standard tendering criteria and (public) monitoring of their effectiveness are highly recommended to accelerate the municipal modernization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with possibilities of targeting energy efficiency potentials in German companies by delivering information and support within a cooperative management system “Learning Energy Efficiency Networks” (LEEN). Information deficits are pointed out as a relevant barrier to implementing energy efficiency measures in literature that can be aimed at by energy programmes such as audits. Our concept combines aspects of cooperation, shared experiences and moderated learning processes. The programme sought to go beyond the sole provision of consultation, by qualifying companies to decide and act on implementing energy efficiency measures by delivering the individual practical know-how they need. After having analysed evaluation data of several hundred companies, our results show that the participants were mainly motivated by the need for practical knowledge and specific information. The networks could well satisfy this need. The benefit for the participants in such delivered information was also reflected in the decreasing of the barrier of imperfect information and the programme enabled companies to make informed decisions on energy efficiency measures. But the gain of the programme was not solely restricted on an increase in knowledge: The majority of participants reported implementation of suggested measures, which would not have been implemented without the programme. Hence, LEEN can be indicated as a policy instrument enabling informed decisions on efficiency measures and supporting their implementation. Possibly tailoring the programme to different target groups and aiming at dismantling other barriers directly in addition to tackling information deficits could be undertaken to improve the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-efficiency buildings do not only save energy but also have multiple further impacts or co-benefits. These impacts are often excluded from the policy evaluation partly because their quantification and integration into cost-evaluations have challenges. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to develop a method to quantify labour productivity which is one of the key multiple impacts, as well as demonstrate the use of the method for calculating the productivity impacts of high-efficiency buildings. The paper uses Germany and Hungary as examples to conduct the quantifications. The result of the study shows that high-efficiency buildings can result in substantial health and labour productivity benefits. Concretely, a German worker can gain 5.2 productive days a year, while a Hungarian 2.2 days by avoiding sick days, after living in high-efficiency buildings. Similarly, through high-efficiency retrofits or high-efficiency new constructions in the tertiary building sector, German and Hungarian workers can gain 2.4 and 1 productive days a year, respectively, by avoiding sick days. The monetary equivalent of the total number of days gained would be as high as 337 million and 7 million Euros/year only from the residential building sector, and 398 million and 3 million Euro/year from the tertiary building sector for Germany and Hungary respectively. In addition to the productive workdays gain, by avoiding mental stress, the German and Hungarian workforce can gain 95 and 2 million Euro respectively in a year by improving work performance from working in high-efficiency tertiary buildings. Furthermore, this paper shows that along with more workdays and improved work performance, both Germany and Hungary can gain 1870 and 3849 healthy life years/million population which is equivalent to 277 and 134 million Euros per year respectively. The findings of this study would provide a strong motivation to the policymakers to design policies that promote construction and renovation of buildings at the passive-house or NZEB standards. The substantial productivity impacts of high-efficiency buildings can be an entry-point for the policymakers as any policy that promote high-efficiency buildings would fit in well in the multi-objective policy framework of the European Union. • High-efficiency buildings can obtain substantial health and productivity benefits. • A novel methodological approach to quantify labour productivity is demonstrated. • High-efficiency buildings result in more active workdays by minimizing health risk. • Substantial monetary gain can be obtained from the productivity benefits. • Findings can motivate policies to implement more high-efficiency buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency retrofits are often impeded by high perceived investment risks, long payback periods and a lack of skills. At the municipal level these issues are particularly pronounced as procuring, implementing, and managing retrofits can exceed existing municipal governance capacities. The diffusion of municipal LED street lighting as a replacement for conventional lighting serves as an example. This paper argues that technological (e.g. complexity and maturity), economic (e.g. selling services vs. products and financing costs), institutional (e.g. property situation and contracts) and competency barriers to retrofitting (e.g. lack of measurement capacity and qualified facilitators) translate into transaction costs. We develop a taxonomy of appropriate modes of municipal retrofitting governance based on transaction costs economics. The findings indicate that more market-based solutions, energy performance contracts in particular, can facilitate the procurement of innovative energy efficiency retrofitting solutions and associated investments among municipalities if neutral tenders, open-book accounting, municipal ownership and intermediary organisations allow municipalities to choose appropriate governance structures for particular technologies and retrofits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The building sector is responsible for a great share of the final energy demand and national CO2 emissions in countries like Germany. Nowadays, low quality thermal energy demands in buildings are mainly satisfied with high-quality sources (e.g. natural gas fired in condensing boilers). Exergy analysis, pursuing a matching in the quality level of energy supplied and demanded, pinpoints the great necessity of substituting high-quality fossil fuels by other low quality energy flows, such as waste heat. In this paper a small district heating system in Kassel (Germany) is taken as a case study. Results from preliminary steady-state and dynamic energy and exergy analysis of the system are presented and strategies for improving the performance of waste-heat based district heating systems are derived. Results show that lowering supply temperatures from 95 to 57.7°C increases the final exergy efficiency of the systems from 32% to 39.3%. Similarly, reducing return temperatures to the district heating network from 40.8 to 37.7°C increases the exergy performance in 3.7%. In turn, the energy performance of all systems studied is nearly the same. This paper shows clearly the added value of exergy analysis for characterising and improving the performance of district heating systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Based on different current long-term energy scenarios the paper discusses the future perspectives of hydrogen in the German energy system as a representative example for the development of sustainable energy systems. The scenario analysis offers varying outlines of the future energy system that determine the possible role of hydrogen. The paper discusses the possibilities of expanding the share of renewable energy and the resulting prospects for establishing clean hydrogen production from renewable energy sources. Emphasis is given to the questions of an ecologically efficient allocation of limited renewable energy resources that can only be assessed from a systems analysis perspective. Findings from recent studies for Germany reveal a strong competition between the direct input into the electricity system and an indirect use as fuel in the transport sector. Moreover, the analysis underlines the paramount importance of reducing energy demand as the inevitable prerequisite for any renewable energy system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Passive Houses are buildings which provide comfortable indoor conditions at an extremely low heating and cooling load. The peak daily average heating and cooling loads are typically below 10 W/m 2 and annual useful energy demands are below 15 kW h/(m 2 a). The Passive House standard was originally developed in Germany. In this paper we show by hygro-thermal dynamic simulation that it is possible to realize residential Passive Houses in all of the world's relevant climate zones, represented here by Yekaterinburg, Tokyo, Shanghai, Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi, and Singapore. The window quality, insulation levels, and mechanical services all depend on the climate as well as on the building's shape and orientation. The resulting annual energy demand for space conditioning of the Passive Houses is 75 to 95% lower than that of a traditionally insulated building of the same geometry. In humid climates like Shanghai or Singapore, special attention must be paid to humidity aspects. In climates which are hot and humid all year long, the total useful energy demand for sensible and latent cooling may exceed 70 kW h/(m 2 a) even in a Passive House. Finally, it is shown that the architectural quality is not compromised by the Passive House requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To improve the energy efficiency of buildings via compliance to regulation in Iran, Code No. 19 was devised in 1991. The code lacks high level aims and objectives, addressing the characteristics of Iranian buildings. As a consequence, the code has been revised and is not completely implemented in practice, and still remains inefficient. As with any energy coding system, this code has to identify the right balance between the different energy variables for the Iranian climate and way of life. In order to assist improvements to high level objectives of Code 19, this code is compared with ISO 9164, EN 832, German regulation, TS 825 of Turkey and China’s GB 50189 to understand how these have adapted international standards to national features. In order to test the appropriateness of Code 19, five case study buildings in Iran are assessed against Code 19 as well as Turkish standard TS 825 and the results are compared. The results demonstrate that Code 19 is efficient in calculations of building envelope, but it needs improvements in the areas of ventilation, gains from internal and solar sources. The paper concludes by offering suggestions for improving the code. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents a detailed meta-analysis of end and primary energy use for heating, cooling and ventilation of 11 low-energy non-residential buildings and one residential building in Germany that belong to the EnOB research program launched by the German Federal Ministry for Economy. In particular, the analysis emphasizes the substantial impact of auxiliary energy use on the efficiency of heating and cooling performance. The investigated buildings employ environmental energy sources and sinks – such as the ground, ground water, rainwater and the ambient air – in combination with thermo-active building systems. These concepts are promising approaches for slashing the primary energy use of buildings without violating occupant thermal comfort. A limited primary energy use of about 100kWhprim/(m2 neta) as a target for the complete building service technology (HVAC and lighting) was postulated for all buildings presented. With respect to this premise, a comprehensive long-term monitoring in high time resolution was carried out over the course of two to five years, with an accompanying commissioning of the building performance. Measurements include the energy use for heating, cooling, and ventilation, as well as the auxiliary equipment, the performance of the environmental heat source and sink, and local climatic site conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Based on a large sample for the German commercial and services sector, this paper econometrically assesses the relevance of various types of barriers to energy efficiency at the sectoral level and across fifteen sub-sectors. The results at the level of entire sectors suggest that the lack of information about energy consumption patterns and about energy efficiency measures, lack of staff time, priority setting within organizations, and – in particular – the investor/user dilemma are all relevant barriers. Allowing for sector-specific differences in the relevance of these individual barriers yields a more heterogeneous picture. The numbers and types of relevant barriers vary across sub-sectors, and the majority of sub-sectors are subject to relatively few barriers. The statistically most significant barriers are found for the sub-sector of public administrations. These findings are robust, independent of whether the definition of an organization's energy efficiency performance includes only measures that have actually been realized or also those that are being planned. For planned projects, however, organizations appear to underestimate internal priority setting as a barrier to energy efficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]