Buildings & Prosumers
Buildings in the EU are responsible for about 40% of energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonising buildings is therefore crucial to tackle the climate crisis.
Solar is key to powering decarbonised buildings and neighbourhoods. Solar is easily deployed on building roofs with standard solar panels. Solar can also be installed throughout building façades and on heritage buildings with the integration of solar cells into construction products, commonly known as Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV).
Solar-powered buildings can generate renewable electricity to power electric vehicles; the electricity can also be stored, or traded within the local community.
Harnessing this potential will require integrating better on-site solar in buildings and renovation policies through the creation of an ambitious and proportionate solar standard for new, renovated and existing buildings. Financing and funding schemes, including innovative energy-as-a-service models, must be set up to make on-site solar accessible to consumers, particularly those that are more vulnerable.
The EU has more than 1 TWp solar rooftop potential, with currently 137 GWp installed.
On-site solar is a job creation powerhouse, creating about 80% of the total solar jobs in the EU.
Highly innovative, “made in Europe”, and with strong market prospects, BIPV can become a flagship for the EU industry.
The combination between smart solar and storage allows prosumers to reach a 60% to 90% rate of electricity self-consumption.
The Buildings & Prosumers workstream
The Buildings & Prosumers workstream
The Buildings & Prosumers workstream promotes the development of on-site solar and storage technologies, advocating for an ambitious strategy to decarbonise the EU’s building stock through the deployment of rooftop solar, with a particular focus on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. It will advocate for an ambitious and proportionate solar standard on new, renovated and existing buildings, and its implementation in Member States.
The workstream will promote regulatory and economic models for self-consumption and energy sharing. It will contribute to the EU regulatory framework for energy sharing, both in the EU legal framework and to the national implementation. These frameworks will form the basis for the future decentralised energy system and provide a growth opportunity for EU businesses.
The workstream will provide solutions for the integration of rooftop solar with batteries, heat pumps and electric vehicles to improve the business case for rooftop solar and to mitigate grid congestion.
Furthermore, the workstream will contribute to reducing risks from a fire on buildings with solar and to ensuring the insurability of solar on C&I buildings.
Our major accomplishments
Our major accomplishments
We wrote the first comprehensive white paper on a regulatory framework for energy sharing. Energy sharing will allow rooftop solar owners to sell their excess to neighbours, who profit from low electricity prices. This provides further incentives to invest in rooftop solar.
We contribute to the first EU energy sharing framework, which will probably be established as part of the electricity market design in 2023.
We contributed to the positions of legislators on the EU solar standard in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The solar standard will provide that every new building will be equipped with solar panels, that certain buildings renovation are coupled with solar installations, and that member states set a timeline to equip all C&I buildings with solar.
Interview with Sofia Barbosa, chair of workstream
I am very honored to serve as chair of the Buildings and Prosumers Workstream. At Greenvolt we see this as a huge opportunity and responsibility. There is a need to unlock the vast potential of solar energy in buildings, which offers a robust solution to lower electricity bills with minimal environmental impact and increase our energy independence. SolarPower Europe and its members can count on our full commitment and enthusiasm to help drive this agenda which puts the consumer at the heart of the energy transition.
Read the interview
Downloads
Framework for Energy Sharing
A new article on energy sharing should be added to the Electricity Market Directive.
Download
Solar Powers Heat and EVs 2023 - Case Studies
How solar electrification of home heating and transportation empowers EU citizens to turn down fossil gas and save on energy bills.
Download
Solar Cities and Solar Regions: 21 solar solutions for the city energy transition
This paper, launched at the Brussels Urban Summit 2023, outlines all the ways solar and cities can support one another.
Download
Buildings & Prosumers workstream Chair
Buildings & Prosumers workstream Vice Chair
Members of the Buildings & Prosumers workstream
