Moreover, this deficiency doesn’t seem to be amended by the new adjustments applied to Law no. 220/2008 by the Government Emergency Order no. 57/2013, scheduled to come into force on 1st of July, 2013.
Is this an improvable approach? Is the Romanian economy going to see benefits by bringing small producers closer to regulators’ attention?
If we are to research how does Romania’s Energy Strategy for 2011-2020 reflect the small renewable energy production – actually the one that is more appropriate for building integration – we would find out that it comprises a clarification on the most convenient technologies of consumption costs and resource volume: “the micro-hydro power plants, the wind turbines and cogeneration power plants using biomass while the production of thermal energy use biomass and solar energy”, the measure of introducing “the concept of net metering invoicing for consumers and small enterprises using renewable energy sources for the production of electric power”. Yet, the document doesn’t clearly specify clarifications on the locally-distributed production and the small producers.
Also, if we are to ask the practitioners in the energy field about the impact of buildings in reducing CO2 emissions, the conclusion states the insignificant role played by the building segment compared to the big loses determined by producers and the countrywide power network. However, as Romania’s Energy Strategy for 2011-2020 states, the contribution of buildings is considered the most significant: “The national potential of energy saving, respectively the reduction of energy losses, is evaluated at 27-35% from the primary energy sources (industry 20-25%, buildings 40-50%, transport 35-40%).” Given the discrepancy between the theory and the practice, is it worth discounting the building segment since the law focus is put on efficiency measures for the energy industry?
Yet, how do these regulations, or rather their lack, meet the already assumed commitments, precisely addressing the integration of renewable energy in building constructions?
What is the link between buildings and renewable energy?
As known, within the EU countries ranking, the 40 percent of total consumed energy in Romania is generated by buildings. This percentage results from the necessary energy used for heating and cooling the buildings but also from energy losses due to the energy inefficiency of used construction materials and technical equipment (such as boilers, tanks, air conditioning devices, household electric devices, lighting devices etc.), and over all, due to the building architecture and construction structure itself.
From this perspective, the saving of used energy in buildings following the undertaken efficiency measures and the large-scale use of renewable energy sources has proven to be a good solution for the reduction of greenhouse gas effects, the reduction of energy consumption and the more efficient use of energy, which come to meet the commitments assumed by the 20-20-20 legislation.
The 20-20-20 legislation is the generic term for the EU norms meant to fight against climatic change and to promote the use of renewable energy sources. This legislation package establishes three targets to be met until 2020: (i) the reduction by 20%, as compared to 1990, of greenhouse gas effects, (ii) a 20% share of energy consumption in European Union produced by renewable energy sources, and (iii) the reduction by 20% of the primary energy use by improving energy efficiency (this last item is indicative).
The minimum level of energy from renewable sources that must be integrated into buildings
Even a not so largely-discussed topic, however, Romania committed to include in the building construction legislation a norm stating that the consumed energy of buildings – assuming that the entire life of a building is being considered, including its construction, operation, maintenance and deconstruction/demolishing – should come from energy renewable sources within a minimum amount. This minimum amount, expressed in terms of percentage of the entire energy consumption, must be established by the domestic laws by 31 December 2014, at the latest.
Therefore, besides the general obligations stated in art.24, index 1, paragraph (4) of Law no.220/2008 to include within the regulations and codes in the domain of constructions, measures to increase the share of all renewable energy sources in the domain of constructions, irrespective of whether we talk about buildings or other types of constructions, art.24 index 2 stipulates the obligation to use minimum levels of renewable energy sources under two situations: for new buildings and the buildings that make the object of major renovations. We remind the fact that we have chosen to define “major renovations” as those renovation works that cost more than 25% of the building value without considering the land on which the building stands, according to Law no.159/2013, in force starting with 19 July 2013, transposing Directive no.2010/31/UE on the building energy performance.
Until now, neither Law no.50/1991 on the authorization of constructions, or Law no.10/1995 on the quality of constructions – the basic groundwork of the regulations in the domain of constructions – do not stipulate any minimum level of energy produced by renewable sources within the total energy consumption of new constructions or constructions having supported major renovation works.
An aspect worth mentioning included in the commitment stated by Directive no.2009/28/CE regarding the promotion of renewable energy sources is that the achievement of the minim levels must be allowed by also using a significant part of renewable energy sources for urban heating and cooling. However, this possibility is not obvious at all in the transposition law (Law no.220/2008).
Therefore, any energy strategy and any decision taken in this domain should take into consideration this obligation to integrate a minimum level of energy from renewable sources into new buildings and those that support major renovations.
Energy performance of buildings and renewable energy
Another clear obligation of integrating energy from renewable sources is related to the near to zero-energy consumption buildings. Thus, according to Directive no. 2010/31/UE on the energy performance of buildings, which has just been transposed – partially, in my opinion – by Law no159/2013 modifying Law no.372/2005, all new public and private buildings will have to comply with the near zero-energy consumption building standard.
What is the connection between the near to zero-energy consumption building and the energy from renewable sources? It is very simple: the energy needs for this kind of building should be close to zero or very low and a considerable part of it should be covered from renewable energy sources advisable to be within the building or in the close neighborhood. Therefore, the European objective, that we also committed to, stipulates that the energy consumed in new buildings should not come only from one source, which has the disadvantage it might benefit from a market monopoly or oligopoly, but from sources that are at the consumption place or close to it, with the advantages of reducing the transportation costs and limiting the anti-competition risks.
As Romania did not meet the deadline for defining the energy consumption (in kWh/sm/year) on every building type, we predict we will have such a definition only towards the end of 2014.
Starting with 1 January 2012, aside from the “near to zero-energy consumption” objective applicable to new buildings, we shouldn’t ignore the obligation of new public buildings and the ones that suffer major renovation works to be an example, in promoting renewable energy. This could be done both by complying with the standards regarding zero-energy consumption buildings (a tighter standard than the near zero-energy consumption one), and also by using third parties to produce energy form renewable sources from the roofs of public buildings or under mixed legal public-private regime,. Although this obligation is clearly stipulated in Directive no. 2009/28/CE, which had a transposition deadline that was due on December 5, 2010, the Law no.220/2008 does not provide anything in this respect, even in its updated version after the modifications brought by GEO no.57/2013.
Energy efficiency and energy from renewable sources
Examples of measures to improve the buildings energy efficiency by using energy from renewable sources are given by Government Ordinance no. 22/2008 which transposes Directive no. 2006/32/CEi on energy efficiency at the final users and energy services.
Among these we mention:
- the use of heat pumps for building heating and cooling;
- the use of solar energy for producing hot water for consumption and space heating and cooling.
In terms of central heating and cooling, by the new Directive no. 2012/27/UE on energy efficiency, the European Union Member States, among which Romania also, agreed that by December 31st, 2015, they would draw up a comprehensive evaluation of the potential of implementing efficient central heating and cooling systems. What does efficiency mean in this case? It means central heating or cooling systems that use at least 50% of energy from renewable sources, 50% residual energy, 75% cogenerated thermal energy or 50% from a combination of energy and heat of the previously mentioned types.
Besides these clear objectives and obligations, the legislation abounds in recommendation for the integration of renewable energy sources into the buildings, such as the obligation to carry out, feasibility studies, during the design phase, to support the energy consumption of the building through energy from renewable sources.
All these legislative initiatives undoubtedly show that building construction is closely related to the energy consumption, both by the energy initially consumed in the construction phase, but especially during the lifetime of the building, which proves once more the real potential of integrating renewable energy sources. The statistics offer an estimate of 80% of the total energy consumed during the lifetime of the building. When will small producers from renewable energy sources receive more consideration and when will this potential truly be exploited?
