Smart Zero-energy Buildings and Communities for Smart Grids

Conclusion and Recommendations

The development of smart grids worldwide offers unique opportunities with respect to the decarbonization of the building sector. Smart grids promote sophisticated and distributed energy management while utilizing a high level of intelligence in balancing energy production and consumption. This includes significant capabilities for exploiting the necessary very high penetration levels of renewable energy production, in terms of demand side management and the variety of the available energy storage applications.

The EU energy efficiency policies for buildings have been a reference point worldwide over the last half century, leading to a holistic approach to buildings. The EU is establishing a new, diverse spectrum of consecutive strategies concerning energy efficiency in the building sector, such as the renovation wave, and is pursuing ambitious climate-related goals, such as those identified in the EU Green Deal (Economidou et al. 2020). These efforts need to be strengthened and closely monitored in order for several challenges to be overcome and for the EU to stimulate change and bridge the gap in order to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement.

The Energy Efficiency First principle and the new European Bauhaus paradigm are drawing great attention with respect to the design and construction of buildings. In addition, a holistic perspective requires encompassing a lifecycle approach and a cyclical economic model in order to account not only for ...