First Renovation Pass for Medical Centre in Prahova
by Carla Mauricio, BPIE (Building Performance Institute of Europe), with contributions from Renocally’s colleagues
A medical centre in Prahova, Romania, will be the first public building in the region to get a renovation passport thanks to EUKI’s support in the Renocally project. The medical centre is situated in the municipality of Lipanesti, and it is weekly visited by hundreds of people seeking medical support.
Building Renovation Passports (BRP) are documents that set a renovation roadmap to achieve deep renovation of buildings. These renovations contribute to reducing energy consumption, thereby reducing GHG emissions and lowering energy costs.
The medical center in Lipanesti will now have a clear summary assessment of the energy consumption in the building, with useful information on the current energy performance, as well as a roadmap on how to improve the efficiency of the building. The BRP will also contribute to making the building safer and healthier for visitors, and will improve the working conditions of the staff, allowing them to work in a more comfortable environment. AE3R-PLOIESTI, one of the partners in Renocally, has coordinated the BRP development of this medical centre with a local energy auditor.
A valuable feature of BRPs is that they offer key information for applying for funding schemes. BRPs show costs and benefits of different interventions in a building, as well as priority measures. This can help applicants select the most urgent measures, collect additional information, and submit applications for funding based on a clear long-term strategy.
According to a survey carried out by TERRA Millenium III Foundation, that asked 19 municipalities in Romania about their renovation strategies and funding applications, municipalities mostly apply for EU and national funding. However, 73.68% of respondents to the survey said that they needed financial consulting or technical consulting from energy auditors, be it for the preparation of technical documentation or for writing and implementing funding requests.
BRPs could help municipalities establish renovation roadmaps for schools, medical centres and offices together with energy auditors. Renovation passports could also help prioritise the most cost-effective measures in funding applications, and thereby increase their chances to get funding.
The survey, prepared in context of Renocally, reflects that the main reason why municipalities look for external funding is the short local budget to cover the energy renovation needs. In addition, other available funding schemes like EU grants are not enough to cover the high demand in Romania, and co-funding requirements are still a challenge because municipalities must pay a share of the renovation costs out of their own budgets.
With EUKI’s support, Renocally is helping municipalities in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia in the implementation of Building Renovation Passports and improving their access to financing.