ReLIFE

Project summary: 

The EU building stock, responsible for more than one third of EU’s energy-related CO2 emissions, faces challenges addressed by the Fit-for-55 package and the Renovation Wave that aims to double renovation rates. ReLIFE, building upon several EU projects, will facilitate data accessibility through an open-source platform and services to empower informed decision-making in deep building renovations, mainly in the residential sector. Employing broad data analysis and case studies, the project will further seek to illustrate the range of potential returns and risk reduction through deep building renovations. To enhance awareness and share expertise, tailored data and services will be available via the user-friendly ReLIFE platform. This platform, targeting key stakeholders, will offer three key services: Financial Service, offering intuitive financial and economic assessments for deep renovation projects (for professionals and non-professionals), enabling informed decisions, and attracting potential investors; Forecasting Service, generating projections for future renovation rates and decarbonisation scenarios, while providing assessments on non-energy co-benefits; Technical Service, categorizing deep renovation technologies based on market maturity, energy efficiency, etc. to support, among others, inspections and the roll-out of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and Building Renovation Passports (BRPs). Moreover, ReLIFE’s strategy on data collection and analysis involves not solely static but also dynamic sources, i.e., satellite/aerial images and monitoring data, for robust data assembly and validation, ensuring reliable information on the EU building stock and its energy performance. The platform and services will be tailored to user needs through co-creation processes and validated via case studies. 

Project services: 

The services provided from ReLIFE project include the following: 

Financial Service: The platform provides a user-friendly finance and investment simulation environment tailored to specific climatic and socio-economic conditions, such as local cost specifics. With minimal basic information (e.g., floor area, building age, number of windows), the service offers valuable financial insights to assess the cost-effectiveness of deep retrofit investments. It includes economic assessments to estimate initial investments, ROI, PBT, annual savings from reduced energy bills, and links to available financial schemes and instruments in specific regions, maximizing renovation project impact for all stakeholders, both professional and non-professional. 

Forecasting Service: This service features a robust forecasting module that assists policymakers and public administration staff in projecting future renovation rates and designing decarbonization policies for 2030 and 2050. By analyzing data from past renovations and considering changing regulations, it supports future policies that meet climate and energy goals. The service quantifies GHG emissions reductions from successful renovations, their role in decarbonizing the EU building sector, and related health benefits, providing decision-makers with insights for potential financial schemes and instruments. 

Technical Service: Offering a comprehensive knowledge base on state-of-the-art technologies (e.g., heat pumps, PV, insulation materials, biomass boilers), this service guides technicians (e.g., energy consultants, engineers, architects) on deep building renovation options. It classifies solutions for energy generation, insulation, and more, detailing their features (energy efficiency, utilization options, configurations). This service supports the roll-out of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and Building Renovation Passports (BRPs) through dynamic data and information provision. 

Role of NTUA: 

NTUA will play a key role in identifying the most suitable scientific methodologies to drive the development of ReLIFE services. This will be achieved by leveraging the datasets identified within the framework of the project. Additionally, NTUA will support the implementation of these services by integrating and harmonizing the heterogeneous datasets under a unified conceptual framework. Specifically, its contributions will include the following: 

• WP3 - “Data analytics and insights” (WP leader)
• Task 3.1 – “Users into services: turning user stories into meaningful features for the ReLIFE services” (task leader)
• Task 3.2 – “ReLIFE Financial Service: a data-driven service for supporting energy efficiency financing” (task leader)
• Task 3.4 – “ReLIFE Technical Service: a data-driven service for classifying and assessing the performance of renovation technologies” (task leader)