nZEB Standards. Conference in Romanian Parliament

nZEB Standards and Energy Efficiency

Steinbeis Team in Romanian Parliament

28.10.2021, Bucharest: the second edition of the conference “nZEB Standards – Energy Efficiency and Building Materials” at the Palace of Parliament, event organized by Oana Marciana Ozmen, Secretary of the Committee on Industry and Services from Romanian Parliament, Anca Dragu, President of the Romanian Senate and Sándor Bende, Chairman of the Committee on Industry and Services. STM director Jurgen Raizner is invited as speaker.

Summary conclusions drawn from the debate:

Reducing energy losses and thus the related costs are executive and legislative priorities
Reforms foreseen in the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience must be implemented as soon as possible to ensure continuity and acceleration of investments
In the current international context, with two major ongoing crises and a fluctuating market for the price of construction materials, it is necessary to develop strategies to attract investment in the production of these materials in our country.
pilot projects for building to nZEB standards need to be expanded and promoted in local communities.

„The price of building materials, which is increasing due to the health crisis, will lead to an increase in the price of buildings, and the workforce in the construction sector must be supported as it is becoming decisive as we aim to have renovated at least 30% of buildings in Romania by 2030” said MEP Oana Ozmen.

According to her, Romania imports more than 70% of building materials, and in the context of renovating buildings with money from the PNRR there is a risk that the percentage of public buildings, schools, hospitals will be significantly reduced.

“We organised this meeting in order to bring to public attention and discuss these new targets and benchmarks from the perspective of Building Materials and Energy Efficiency of Buildings, as well as NZEB (Nearly Zero-Energy Building) Standards which represent big challenges for EU countries and especially for Eastern European countries with many old buildings. The themes proposed for this conference were the result of discussions with energy efficiency associations. We felt it was necessary to bring together the views of specialists and policy makers at the same table in this debate so that the energy retrofit programme can be implemented as effectively as possible. We propose amending and supplementing the relevant legislation on the categories of buildings and beneficiaries who qualify for the energy retrofitting programme. Each guest contributed to the coagulation of ideas and solutions, from each one’s area of expertise, examples of best practices in the field were shared, problems were raised to which we will seek solutions and we will continue this constructive dialogue”, said Ms Oana Ozmen. She also stated that she wants to bring problems and solutions to the same table, to discuss concretely how we can contribute with projects from a parliamentary perspective and bring them to the area of effective implementation. I propose to build an awareness campaign among people on the need and benefits that energy efficiency in buildings can bring to their households, especially as our country has a large number of old buildings.

Also Romanian officials declared that they propose to amend and complete the relevant legislation on the categories of buildings and beneficiaries that qualify for the energy retrofitting programme.

“Local authorities must already have clearly defined standards that new investments must meet. It will not be easy, it is a big challenge for Eastern European countries that have both in management and in inventory of residential buildings – old buildings, which require vision and a good knowledge of the new standards to achieve energy efficiency. Plans need to be made to attract new investors to their areas, to bring the benefits of using environmentally friendly building materials and, in the medium and long term, reducing energy consumption to the attention of citizens,” said Sándor Bende.

For her part, Anca Dragu said: “USR is concerned about green policies and energy efficiency. In the conference organised by my colleague, MEP Oana Ozmen, we discussed European methods that we should assimilate at legislative level so that Romania can start building more efficiently. Currently, at European level, about 75% of buildings are energy inefficient and the energy renovation process involves about 1% of buildings per year. Totally insufficient. This is why the “wave of renovations” programme, launched on 14 October last year, aims to double the rate of renovated buildings over the next 10 years, creating more than 160 000 jobs. At national level, the “Renovation Wave” is part of the NRRP, which has been allocated €2.170bn. It is planned to renovate 3500 buildings with a total of 6.5 million square metres of residential and public buildings”.

Steinbeis was represented at the event by Juergen Raizner, director of Steinbeis Transfer Center and by its project manager, Roxana Boboruta. They have introduced the EUKI financed project EDAPHIC-BLOOM Danube, emphasizing the fact that Romanian experts can benefit from training on German construction standards.

Additionally was pointed out that EDAPHIC-BLOOM Danube is an excellent example of how local authorities can benefit from the results of applied research in order to solve problems or implement various official strategies. In summary, examples of benefits are the following:

A cluster for sustainable development will be created in Danube floodplain and the Danube Delta with the role of facilitating the dialogue between the research environment (Romania and Germany), the private environment and public authorities;
A map of energy efficiency through a platform so that energy audit certificates in buildings can be accessed online. The platform will pass into the administration of Tulcea City Hall (after the end of the project) and will have other functions useful to public management;
At least 20 experts will receive training according to the “Passivhaus Standard” in Germany;
A comprehensive guide and tools, as well as advice for the sustainable and profitable use of soils in target areas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be made available to public and private entities.

Speakers:

Oana-Marciana ÖZMEN, organizer, USR MEP, Secretary of the Committee for Industries and Services – Chamber of Deputies
Anca Dana DRAGU, USR Senator, President of the Senate
Sándor BENDE, UDMR MEP, President of the Committee for Industries and Services – Chamber of Deputies
Virgil POPESCU, Interim Minister of Energy
Radu DUDĂU, EPG Director and Coordinator of the Efficient Romania Project
S. Søren JENSEN, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark to Romania
István-Loránt ANTAL, Chairman of the Committee for Energy, Energy Infrastructure and Mineral Resources – Senate
Christian PLATE, Deputy Head of Mission – German Embassy
Ioan MANG, PSD MEP, Vice-Chairman of the Committee for Industries
Alexandru MAXIMESCU, Vice President OMV Petrom
Silvia DINICĂ, USR Senator, President of the Economic, Industries and Services Committee – Senate
Neculai TĂNASE, Secretary of State – Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration
Juergen Raizner, Director Steinbeis Transfer Center
Süde GURCAN, Commercial Attaché of the Turkish Embassy
Horia PETRAN, President of pRO-nZEB Cluster
Claudiu CREȚU, General Director – Termoenergetica
Adriana IFTIME, Federation of Employers of Construction Companies
Iuliana LECA, Executive Director of the External Funds Department – City Hall Sector 6
Raluca TEODOSIU, TUD Investment Consulting, Mihai TUDORANCEA, TUD Investment Consulting, Cătălin LUNGU, Association of Romanian Installation Engineers (Valahia branch)
Emilia Cerna MLADIN, President of the Association of Energy Auditors for Buildings in Romania
Bogdan Constantin MUCENICA, Rockwool Romania
Mihail ȘTEFAN, Executive Director – ROMEPS

The moderator of the debate was Adrian MĂNIUȚIU, EM360.