EU Peers, Community for Integrated Home Renovation Service, held its 2nd Project Meeting and Conference in the prestigious ‘City of Light’, Paris, from 10th to 12th April 2024, with support from the SERAFIN network. The SERAFIN network, made up of French third-party financing companies and partners, held debates on French and European public policies and local initiatives fostering ambitious and affordable energy renovation for all, and the possible financial solutions needed to drive these renovations. The Network presented an opportunity to introduce the new European EU Peers Project, which seeks to develop a European Community of Practice for One-Stop Shops (OSS) for home energy renovation.
The aim of EU Peers is to support the development and promotion of Integrated Home Renovation Services (IHRS) as key tools for accelerating residential energy renovation in the European Union. One key part of the project is to build a vibrant and helpful inclusive community to engage and connect practitioners for collaborative problem-solving. It also seeks to strengthen and upscale the OSS concept by supporting skilled practitioners actively involved in the implementation of One-Stop Shops, and to build bridges between existing and emerging initiatives.
On the agenda were conversations and discussions on how the OSS concept is implemented in Italy, Spain, Hungary, and Ireland. Our Senior Engineer and Chair of Association Irish Energy Agencies, Alex Hamilton, was among the key speakers. She spoke on the topic, ‘Ireland and the question of defining a One-Stop Shop: Who’s in and who’s out in Ireland’.
According to the National Residential Retrofit Plan, Ireland aims to achieve the equivalent of 500,000 homes retrofitted to a Building Energy Rating of B2/cost optimal or carbon equivalent, installation of 400,000 heat pumps in existing premises to replace older, less efficient heating systems by the end of 2030. The Senior Engineer in her presentation highlighted major barriers that are inhibiting progress to achieving these targets, including the country’s definition of a One-Stop Shop as a company that must have over €1million yearly turnover and directly employs the contractors. This is restricting local contractors from entering the national OSS programme, limiting the number of actors who can implement home renovation works.
She stated that the OSS grant programme to deliver deep energy retrofits to the domestic sector launched in 2022 with no registered One-Stop Shops, but currently has 20 registered OSS (March 2024). This might be considered a success but weighing it against the target for residential retrofit and 2030, calls for a more favourable environment to allow more people offering or supporting residential energy renovations to join. In 2023 a total of 17,600[1] homes were retrofitted through the OSS programme to BER B standard or higher – compared to the required number of over 60,000 that are currently needed to reach the 2030 targets. The Senior Engineer also revealed the complexities of renovation processes, coordination among stakeholders, scalability and impact measurement, accessibility, and awareness as barriers.
Similar issues were raised by other project partners. Francesca Hugony, ENEA, Italy, called for an increase in OSS in Italy. Gergely Schum, Energiaklub, Hungary, wants a defined OSS concept in the law and the establishment of an official certification including public awareness and education campaigns funded by the State. Miguel Segovia, GBCE, Spain, pointed out low renovation ratios in Spain while sharing the differences between Non-integrated Home Renovation Services and OSS.
Alex concluded her presentation by sharing a One-Stop Shop model for Ireland, one she tagged, ‘Irish OSS model: Hassle free journey for homeowner’, which provides a seamless ‘journey’ to a retrofit home from the OSS provider to the homeowner.
See excerpt from her model below:
[1] https://www.seai.ie/publications/SEAI-Retrofit-Full-Year-Report-2023.pdf