Bauen in Zeiten der Energiewende

Building at a time when Germany is transforming its energy system.

A Germany's new energy strategy is characterized mainly by actions in the buildings sector. The Federal Government's efforts are focused on evolving regulatory instruments such as the Energy Conservation Regulations (EnEV), on creating financial incentives to guarantee sustainable energy efficiency standards and on developing "efficiency houses plus". The amendment to the EnEV is in particular the implementation of the recast EC Energy Perfor-mance of Buildings Directive. It tightens energy efficiency requirements for new buildings in two steps so that by 2016 their energy efficiency is improved by 25 %. It does not provide for stricter requirements for the existing building stock. As part of research, the "efficiency house plus" is currently added to the Federal Government's efficiency house programme. These buildings are capable of producing more energy than they consume when used at full capac-ity. The surplus energy is to be used, among other things, to improve electric mobility or to supply a neighbourhood. The first pilot projects have already shown that this strategy works in practice.