The European Union is asking for actions that help to deliver its target reducing the greenhouse gas emissions progressively up to 2050. The social housing sector manages over 26 million homes, about 11% of existing dwellings in Europe (Housing Europe data). In Emilia-Romagna the Social Housing companies (ACER) manage in total 78.703 dwellings in 6.404 buildings, whose energy demand ranges from 80 to 450 kWh/m2 per year equivalent and average energy cost ranges from 600 € to 2500 € per year.
The LEMON project is funded under the European Horizon 2020 programme to provide technical, organizational and financial assistance to public and private entities for the preparation of tenders for the energy retrofitting of about 620 social housing units in the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Parma.
LEMON increases saving opportunities, improves housing space quality and creates value for all the actors involved in the energy refurbishment of social housing buildings: from people living in the dwellings to the technicians who manage and keep high building’s performances, from innovators to investors in the construction sector. LEMON focuses on a portion of social housing located in the Emilia-Romagna Region and has the ambition to be replicated in other contests.
LEMON has the purpose of providing technical assistance to accelerate the investment in the energy retrofitting of social housing units, integrating different form of funding available, including regional and national loans and incentives, and apply forms of contract to govern the relations between Local Authorities, dwelling owners, tenants, ACERs (Social Housing Companies), ESCOs (Energy Service Companies) and financing institutions as to ensure a return on investment within 15 years from the retrofitting.
The overall project objectives are:
- To experiment innovative financing models for social housing retrofit through the implementation of new contracting models and EPC contracts, mobilising 15,290 million Euros of investments in energy retrofitting, in order to reduce the buildings energy demand and guarantee the energy performance of the retrofit.
- To develop and implement energy efficiency projects in private and public dwellings involved in the energy retrofit programme, reaching at least an average 40% energy reduction.
- To develop a new lease based on the energy performance of the housing unit, called EPTA - Energy Performance Tenancy Agreement, that will allow the Social Housing Company to charge the 30% of the investment on the tenant renting fee.
By the end of the project LEMON, the social housing companies ACER Reggio Emilia and ACER Parma delivered an investment programme of 9.453.428 € (VAT included) in 626 dwellings with an energy savings, developing a pipeline of bankable aggregated project and financial schemes combining the retrofit project of a consistence stock of social housing dwellings with an EPC contract that will involve the ESCOs in the realization of the interventions and in the management of the retrofitted dwellings. The innovation is based on the integration of different financing instruments available.
In total 626 dwellings have been included in Lemon programme, among them 149 are in Parma Province and 477 in Reggio Emilia Province. The investment programme of 9.453.428 € will reduce by 4.039 MWh/y the energy consumption and avoid 794 tons of CO2 per year.
