Renovations for an energy-efficient flagship project
Project description
Title: Energy-Efficient District Lviv
Commissioned by: Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV)
Country: Ukraine
Lead executing agency: Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine
Overall term: 2018 to 2023
Context
High heating costs are a major problem for large parts of the Ukrainian population. Outdated cogeneration plants and distribution plants, an inadequate district heating network, poorly insulated or uninsulated buildings and inefficient heating systems are driving up energy consumption. The ensuing costs particularly affect people who only have a small income. The poorer sections of the population are reliant on social subsidies from the Ukrainian state to pay their bills.
Cutting down on energy consumption would decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Energy-related funding could also relieve the strain on public finances by reducing social energy subsidies.
The Ukrainian Government is seeking to make energy use in buildings more efficient. To achieve this, buildings must undergo thermal renovations, but most apartment owners lack the financial means and technical expertise to make this a reality. A national Energy Efficiency Fund aims to help and provide subsidies for the relevant renovations such as better thermal insulation and modern heating systems. However, the financial incentives are often insufficient, especially for the renovation of residential buildings in which a large proportion of residents receive subsidies. This is also true in the Ukrainian city of Lviv.
Objective
A residential area in Lviv is comprehensively thermally renovated. This project is a positive example of the energetic and economic advantages of renovation to increase energy efficiency and serves as a reference for the national Energy Efficiency Fund.
Approach
The project is supporting Ukrainian municipalities in creating incentives for the renovation of residential buildings. To this end, a residential area in the district of Sykhiv in Lviv was selected in conjunction with the project partners for the implementation of modernisation measures. The aim is to save as much energy and as many social subsidies as possible, and to improve the comfort of residents.
As a first step, the project is reviewing the building stock, social structure and energy consumption in the district together with the Lviv City Council. Plans will then be made with homeowners for the thermal renovation. These will include, for example, the installation of façade insulation and new ventilation and heating systems that allow residents to regulate the temperature in their apartments.
The aim is to halve the energy needed to generate heat once work in the renovated buildings is completed. For residents, this means that they will only have to pay 50 per cent of their previous energy costs.
Sykhiv takes on the role of an energy-efficient flagship district. Here, resources will be conserved, energy will be used efficiently and emissions will be reduced in future. The experiences gathered by the project will serve as a frame of reference for Ukraine’s Energy Efficiency Fund and for other towns in the region. The project highlights potential savings and documents the financial and environmental benefits of the various renovation measures. The project will showcase the impact that can be achieved when financial incentives from the Energy Efficiency Fund are topped up by municipal incentives. Homeowner associations will receive information about financing models and contribute to the renovation costs. In the long term, the labour market can also be expected to benefit from the increased demand for renovation experts in the building sector.