Energy Guides

The Enercity fund ProKlima wanted to promote the Ultra-Low-Energy Building concept of Passive Houses but noticed that investors and other market actors faced barriers in implementing this concept. Investors had difficulties in finding contractors capable of the required construction techniques, and there was a lack of quality control.

The ‘Energielotsen’ (Energy Guides) in the Hannover region in Germany is an energy advice and assistance programme, which helps clients to build their new home in an energy efficient manner, preferably in passive house standard. The service is also available for retrofitting of existing buildings, combined heat and power (CHP), solar (water) heating, and schools. The Energy Guides are architects or engineers who consult clients on energy efficiency measures for buildings during the whole construction or refurbishment process. The overall aim of the ‘Energielotsen’ programme is to provide the best possible energy efficiency consulting for the building or retrofitting process in order to guarantee compliance with a high building energy efficiency standard.

Local

Relevant sectors

• Residential: The residential sector is the clear focus group of the policy. However, schools may also apply for subsidies.

Energy Guides must assess the whole building in order to avoid lost opportunities. This covers, in principle, all passive design and active technology options. However, whether all recommendations are implemented is up to the investor.

‘Energy Guides’ is an advisory service for assisting investors in achieving energy-efficient building and refurbishment.
The aim is to achieve that Passive Houses are built. They require a maximum heating energy consumption of 15 kWh/m²/year and a maximum primary energy consumption of 120 kWh/m²/year.

Supply-side actors will benefit if they offer or can participate in the construction of energy-efficient and particularly Passive Houses.

Relevant target groups

• Investor
• Investor-occupier

Direct beneficiaries

• Architect

  Architects with additional qualifications who are serving as Energy Guides will benefit directly, due to an increased demand for energy efficiency advice.

• Investor

  Investors benefit directly because tailor-made information is provided with costs reduced by way of a financial incentive.

• Investor-occupier

  Investor – occupiers benefit directly because tailor-made information is provided with costs reduced by way of a financial incentive.

• Energy consultant

  Energy consultants who are serving as Energy Guides will benefit directly, due to an increased demand for energy efficiency advice.

• Engineering consultant

  Engineering consultants benefit directly, as well, due to an increased demand for energy efficiency consultations.

Indirect beneficiaries

• Construction company

• Installation contractor

• Manufacturer

• Property development company

• System supplier

Relevant barriers

• Technical barriers: Investors are normally not energy efficiency experts and are therefore uncertain whether the construction companies and contractors will build in accordance with the required standards. This is an uncertainty about the actual performance of the buildings. The assistance and quality control provided by the Energy Guides will help overcome this barrier as well as uncertainty about the energy cost savings achievable through energy-efficient buildings.
• Economic and financial barriers: Comprehensive energy consultancy including an in-depth analysis of the respective building project regarding energy-efficient technologies and measures can be quite expensive. The financial incentives provided by proKlima increase the likelihood that private investors use an Energy Guide in order to avoid lost opportunities. Thus, proKlima offers the grant against the expenses for Energy Guides. The incentive amount can cover up to 75% of the costs and depends on the future performance of the house. The maximum amount can be €500 for a new buildings and up to €2,500 for a refurbished KfW Efficiency House 55. In addition, there are grants for investments to implement the energy efficiency recommendations by the Energy Guides. A newly built single-family house can receive €6,000 for achieving the passive house standard.
• Knowledge and information barriers: Investors may lack information on energy efficiency options, energy and cost savings, financial incentives, and the market of qualified suppliers of energy-efficient design, construction, and technologies. The Energy Guides address this barrier through expert advice.

Relevant incentives

• Saved energy costs: Energy Guides give comprehensive recommendations on how most of the building energy can be saved and that the savings can be achieved in reality. These energy savings directly result in monetary savings.

In order to receive grants from the local proKlima climate fund, it is mandatory to assign an Energy Guide with the task of assessing the respective building. The clients may receive up to €500 for the consultation of an Energy Guide and if they finally build a Passive House, up to an additional €6,000 (for a single-family house) (proKlima f, p. 9). In order to ensure compliance, evidence has to be provided that heating energy consumption does not exceed 15 kWh/m²/yr and the primary energy demand is not higher than 120 kWh/m²/yr.
Funding, to a large extent, depends on the complexity of the building project. The more ambitious the energy savings are planned to be (after the project is finished), the higher the costs for the Energy Guide. However, funding also increases with increasing complexity.
Germany’s state owned bank, KfW, also provides further incentives for investors. Again, more ambitious projects receive better loan or grant conditions. Read more in the bigEE good practice policy example on the KfW programmes.
Germany’s Minimum Energy Performance Standard is stipulated in the Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV) and calculated with the Reference Building Method. Depending on various criteria (e.g. size, location) a building needs to pass certain thresholds. Based on the EnEV, a system was developed that classifies minimum performers from best performers. Both, proKlima and the KfW provide funds via this scheme. It is also linked to the Energy Performance Certificate.
Following the concept of the Energy Guide, proKlima also introduced Electricity Guides and Photo-Voltaic Guides.
The fund that proKlima administers and distributes for energy efficient refurbishment measures is replenished with around €5 million per year. This equates to €3.9 million coming from Stadtwerke Hannover AG, which is the public utility company of the region, €1 million from the local city government of Hannover and ca. €200,000 from some smaller municipalities. The lion’s share of the fund coming from the utility company is always from revenues of the preceding year.
The www.proklima-hannover.de website also points to various online-calculators so that users can assess their electricity bill enabling them to find energy saving potential on their own. More personal advice is available at the Enercity Expo Café.

The effects of ProKlima (or its projects) have been evaluated. They comprise programmes for existing and new buildings, renewable energy, schools, CHP, non-residential buildings and electricity guides. It is estimated that €2.6 million resulted in investments of €33 million. In addition, 260 jobs were secured or created. Moreover, 50% of the added value remains in the region of Hannover and the wider area of Lower Saxony.

Compared to traditional energy advice schemes that only provide recommendations before the investor’s decision and try to stimulate the latter, the Energy Guides are highly innovative in the repeated assistance carrying the investor through the implementation of the project to ensure energy efficiency success and quality.
The most innovative aspect of the policy package is probably that funding is - to a large extent - generated through revenues by the public utility company: Stadtwerke Hannover AG.

The following pre-conditions are necessary to implement Energy Guides (insert name of the policy type):
Agencies or other actors responsible for implementation
The programme is managed by the Enercity fund proKlima.

Funding
Funding is provided by proKlima, which receives €3.9 million from Stadtwerke Hannover AG, €1 million from the local city goverment of Hannover and ca. €200,000 from some smaller municipalities. The lion’s share of the fund coming from the utility company is always from revenues of the preceding year (proKlima (g)).

Test procedures
For all its buildings-related schemes, ProKlima relies on the calculation methods required for the German Minimum Energy Performance Standards and Energy Performance Certificates for buildings.

In 1998, several local institutions signed the ‘ProKlima Co-operation Agreement’ and, thus, institutionalised ProKlima – The Enercity Fund, which is responsible for the general administration and implementation of projects in the region.
The proKlima team then developed a proposal for the Energy Guides programme and estimated the savings and costs. Each year, the Board of theproKlima fund decides on priority projects based on greenhouse gas emission reductions achievable per fund used in the projects and programmes. Following the positive decision on the Energy Guides programme, the team implemented it.

Quantified target
The Energy Guides measure does not have a particular energy savings target.

Actors responsible for design
ProKlima fund (local Energy Efficiency Fund and Agency)

Actors responsible for implementation
ProKlima manages the project and is responsible for providing Energy Guide grants to investors. The actual on-site visits are done by the Energy Guides who are engineers or architects with additional qualifications.

Monitoring
ProKlima keeps track of the buildings they support with grants and of the energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions compared to reference buildings that would just have met the requirements of the German Minimum Energy Performance Standards (EnEV).

Evaluation
The impacts of ProKlima (or its projects), have been evaluated. They comprise programmes for existing and new buildings, renewable energy, schools, CHP, non-residential buildings and electricity guides. It is estimated that €2.6 million resulted in investments of €33 million. In addition 260 jobs were secured or created. Moreover, 50% of the added value remains in the region of Hannover and the wider region of Lower Saxony. The total energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions for all programmes are also evaluated on an annual basis.

• Minimising rebound effects: The Energy Guide should be in the position to make investors aware of energy-efficient use of their building or appliances, e.g. with regard to energy consuming equipment (IT or cooling appliances), to avoid potential rebound effects. However, we do not know to which extent the programme promotes this and/or whether the Energy Guides provide it.
• Dynamic market transformation and/or innovation: As the policy is restricted to the local level - meaning that economics of scale hardly apply, dynamic market transformation is limited to the local market. In this market however, the building quality and the compliance with high energy performance requirements are improved.
• Avoiding lost opportunities: One of the key objectives of the policy is to avoid lost opportunities by promoting Ultra-Low-Energy Buildings and ensuring compliance. Energy Guides may also point to additional building related measures resulting in additional energy savings.
• Minimising snap-back effects: As soon as the measure ends, especially if funding for Energy Guides dries up, investors may become less inclined to use energy consultants for their building investments. This effect will depend on whether the scheme has achieved a broad capability among supply-side actors to design and build Ultra-Low-Energy Buildings to standard in the Hanover region at the time the scheme ends, or not. In addition, in Germany there are also funds available for building assistance facilitated by KfW.
• Minimising free-rider effects: It is unlikely that investors would fully tap the potential of Ultra-Low-Energy Buildings with the Energy Guide service, so we consider free-rider effects to be small.
• Creating Spill-over effects: The Energy Guides will assess whether architects and construction companies have provided good quality work meeting the energy performance requirements for Ultra-Low-Energy Buildings (Passive houses), e.g. regarding air tightness. This feedback will improve the capability among these supply-side actors to design and build Ultra-Low-Energy Buildings to standard. Their other construction projects will benefit from these improved skills, which will be a positive spill-over effect.

Co-benefits
For Lower Saxony the policy has additional labour market effects. 260 jobs have been saved or created. 50% of added value remains in the region.

proKlima did not publish energy savings from the Energy Guides scheme separately.
In total, ProKlima approved grants of €45 million between 1998 and 2010 and induced reductions in annual CO₂ emissions of ca. 93,500 metric tons (proKlima a, p. 35). Another €2.9 million was granted in 2011 (proKlima h, p. 22), with expected annual CO₂ emissions reductions of more than 7,000 metric tons.

3,255 new homes were constructed between 2005 and 2010 and proKlima provided financial and technical support for 11.1% of them. In 2010 alone, almost 70 new buildings and more than 100 existing buildings undergoing energy-efficient refurbishment received financial support for Energy Guides.

For 2011, ProKlima approved 89 projects and funds for Energy Guides of €76,509 for existing buildings. 88 new buildings, which needed to meet the passive house standard, received ProKlima grants (ProKlima (h)). While the total is not provided in the source, the grant for Energy Guides for new buildings was at the maximum €500.

Data is only available for ProKlima as a whole. ProKlima invested €2.6 million which led to additional private investments of €33 million (ProKlima (i)).