Assessing the potential of building technologies for energy efficient refurbishment: a European perspective

The issue of energy efficient refurbishment asks for advanced tools supporting decision-making processes that balance multiple requirements and multiple goals. It???s based on the assumption that the management of both prescriptive and performance-based requirements on existing buildings should also encompass social, environmental and cultural responsibility and take into account cost-effectiveness. Generally a project of retrofitting is based on data and information flows, where repetitions and similarities may occur performing again the process on a different building in a different context. This suggests the need of strategies that could be optimized at a large scale but adapted to local conditions and specificities. In this context, the EU concept of ???geocluster??? has been adopted being a virtual homogeneous trans-regional area where strong similarities are found in terms of climate, environmental context, culture, construction typologies, etc. The construction of a geocluster framework could support decision-making processes at different levels, from the adoption of policies on energy efficiency to the identification of market potential of technological solutions or building materials for energy efficiency across European regions. This paper shows the results of a EU funded project under Seventh Framework Program (GE2O) aimed at the development of a geocluster mapping tool supporting the assessment of building technologies for energy efficiency in the building sector.