Project description
Cost-neutral retrofitting for energy-efficient homes
The EU’s old residential building stock requires retrofitting to become energy efficient. In turn, this will reduce energy consumption and costs. However, retrofitting is an expensive procedure and new innovative financial solutions are needed to accelerate the transformation of homes into energy-efficient structures. The EU-funded FITHOME project will propose a new financial instrument and new advanced digital methods for retrofitting processes, including flow management and quality assurance. It also advances a scalable connection with peer PDA-projects and a pan-European funding platform. The project will be deployed in several municipalities in the Dutch Alkmaar region, leading to more than 900 retrofitted homes. FITHOME will implement a home-based betterment tax that will allow owners to retrofit their homes and focus on guaranteed, no-regret retrofitting in photovoltaics and isolation that secures cost neutrality for homeowners.
Objective
FITHOME leads to 900+ retrofitted homes in 3-7 municipalities in the Dutch Alkmaar region. It unlocks €15.75-19.25mn in capital for retrofitting and results in 11.8 ktons of Co2 saved during the project. Energy usage in the participating homes decreases with 64%. FITHOME constitutes three workstreams: 1. rollout of a novel financial instrument; 2. actual retrofittings in “no regret” measures such as PV and isolation via a simplified, customer-centric retrofitting process through digital upfront calculators, process flow management and quality assurance in terms of vendor and material selection and 3. European scale-up and linkage with peer PDA-projects and a Pan-European funding platform. The project:
-implements home-based, betterment tax – an instrument allowing homeowners to retrofit homes, while repaying related investments through a municipal a tax over max. 30 years. The investment is property-attached, thus risk-free. The tax height is the difference between the old and new energy bill (resulting from the energy savings thus ensuring neutrality).
- is a EU first in applying this scheme at scale. It builds on pilot results in the Municipality of Bergen, while building on insights of the U.S. PACE scheme (220,000 homes retrofitted to date) and the EuroPace project;
-focuses on guaranteed no regret retrofitting in PV and isolation, guaranteeing cost neutrality for homeowners;
- engages homeowners through tailored, customer engagement campaigns, which are driven by the Municipality of Wijk bij Duurstede (NL);
- develops tools that allow crystal clear insight in retrofitting costs and potential, whereas digital integration and process flow management will ensure that the entire retrofitting process (e.g. from application to vendor and material selection) are assured;
- allows scaling beyond NL steps are taken to assess feasibility to link in with a Pan-European Investment Platform, while the PDA Working Group ensure ensures continuity and lessons-learned incorporation.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinator
3812 RS Amersfoort
Netherlands
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.