<
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-13/dutch-renovation-technique-promises-quicker-net-zero-energy-retrofits>
"Two workers wait while a square piece of prefabricated wall is lowered by a
crane. Like a puzzle piece, the segment is snapped into place, covering up the
last bit of faded beige facade on a two-story apartment building. This ordinary
mid-century housing block in a neighborhood in the west German city of
Moenchengladbach is getting a quick and dramatic efficiency upgrade, thanks to
a green renovation technique called
Energiesprong.
The method, also known as serial renovation, was devised in the Netherlands in
2010. In Dutch, the term means “energy jump,” and speed is indeed the point.
Prefabricated facade components, complete with high-performance windows, are
built in factories and then wrapped around buildings, giving them an insulation
makeover that’s faster and cheaper than a typical whole-home renovation. Solar
panels and heat pumps complement the retrofit, transforming leaky older
buildings into “Net Zero” homes that can produce as much power as they consume.
That’s the idea behind the approach, at least. Energiesprong-inspired projects
are popping up outside the Netherlands, including in California and Canada.
Germany is one of the latest countries to push serial renovation after
struggling to hit carbon reduction targets. Buildings contribute a quarter of
German greenhouse gas emissions, and the current rate of energy efficiency
renovation is far too low to reach climate goals — it would have to quadruple,
according to a study by DIW Berlin. The country’s dependence on imported gas
adds another layer of urgency, underscored by the energy crisis that followed
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."
Via
Future Crunch:
https://futurecrunch.com/226-eighth-continent/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
