EU Directives on Energy Efficiency

The key requirements of these Directives are:

Energy Performance Of Buildings Directive

• A methodology for calculating the total energy performance of buildings has to be developed, and this must form the basis of Building Regulations requirements.
• Building Regulations will have to be reviewed at no more than five-yearly intervals in future.
• A system for the energy certification of buildings must be developed, and every new building or existing building when sold or rented must have a certificate.
• Every building larger than 1,000m2, when undergoing a major refurbishment, must have the latest energy saving technologies installed, insofar as is economic and practical.

If you would like more detail on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive click here .

If you would like a summary of the Directive in plain English click here.

(Click here if you would like to view the full text of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive)

Energy End-use Efficiency and Energy Services Directive

• National energy reduction targets of 9% over a nine-year period beginning 2008 have been given.
• Member States have to produce "Energy Efficiency Action Plans" showing how these targets will be achieved.  The first Action Plan has to be submitted to the European Commission no later than June 2007.
• The public sector is required to play an exemplary role in energy saving.
• Obligations are placed on energy companies to introduce schemes which will give incentives to their customers to install energy saving measures.
• National agencies must be established to take responsibility for achieving all these targets and plans.

If you would like more detail on the Energy Services Directive click here.

If you would like a summary of the Directive in plain English click here

(Click here if you would like to view the full text of the Energy Services Directive)

Monitoring Progress

As with all EU Directives, they only become effective once they are incorporated into UK law.  Many of the Articles in these Directives – particularly the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive – have already been so transposed.  Monitoring of progress with their implementation is being undertaken by the UK's "Directive Implementation Advisory Group" (DIAG) www.diag.org.uk  

However, the government is making slow progress in the key area of energy certification (Article 7 of the EPBD).  This requires Member States to introduce a system by which energy certificates have to be made available for
• All new buildings
• All existing privately owned buildings, when sold
• All existing rented buildings, at change of tenant
• All public buildings larger than 1,000m2 in floor area
Article 10 requires the establishment of a system of accredited experts, authorised to carry out the certification.

Member States are able to apply to the European Commission to delay the implementation of energy certification until no later than January 2009, but permission to delay will only be granted on the basis of there being an insufficient body of accredited experts, and if accompanied by a detailed implementation plan.  The UK government has not submitted any formal application to delay its implementation of energy certification.

Pilkington urges the government to make rapid progress towards implementing certification in the UK.  We believe that energy certificates for buildings can help stimulate the demand for energy-efficiency, in much the same way as energy labels have transformed the market for white goods.

If you want to keep an eye on progress in other EU Member States, the European Commission has set up two websites.  www.buildingsplatform.eu/cms is the formal site on which implementation of the EPBD will be monitored.  In addition, focussing just on existing buildings, www.enper-exist.com looks at many initiatives around Europe for applying the Directive in the existing buildings sector.