Rehabilitate trains more than 700 students in financing for energy rehabilitation
This Interreg Sudoe project comes to an end, after 30 months of work coordinated by Agenex, in which the Foundation has been a partner and coordinator of Communication.
With new home prices in Spain skyrocketing over the last decade, whether at their highest peak (Q4 2007: average price of 2,048 euros per square meter), in their fall (Q1 2015: average price of 1,197 euros per square meter) or in the current market (Q4 2018: average price of 1,337 euros per square meter) -according to data from Tinsa-, the situation has not given citizens much room to buy a house.
In this context, the rehabilitation of homes and buildings has been the best option. However, insufficient knowledge on the part of public administrations, technicians and end users in areas such as rehabilitation, energy efficiency and new ways of financing this type of intervention has sometimes become an obstacle to carrying out the renovation of the building stock.
Precisely, throughout its 30 months of life, the European project Rehabilite, belonging to the Interreg Sudoe programme, led by the Extremadura Energy Agency (Agenex) and in which the Fundación Laboral de la Construcción has participated as a partner, has managed to facilitate this knowledge, open and available to anyone interested, through the results obtained to support the financing of energy rehabilitation in the Sudoe space, made up of Spain, France and Portugal.
Transnational financing support platform
Today, the Transnational Platform to Support the Financing of Energy Rehabilitation is fully operational, which brings together various services and information tools free of charge, available to regional, provincial and local public administrations, public companies, professional associations, construction companies, rehabilitation companies, energy service companies, engineering consulting firms, architectural offices and end users.
Among the services offered by this specialized portal, developed and implemented throughout the project, the areas of On-line Training and Consulting stand out for their impact and scope.
More than 700 people participated in the MOOCs
Through Rehabilite, three MOOC (Massive On line Open Courses) have been designed and offered dedicated to the existing technical solutions for the improvement of the energy efficiency of buildings, the technical-economic study of these solutions and the financial instruments based on structural funds for energy rehabilitation. More than 700 people have participated in these courses, far exceeding the initial objectives of the project, which set a figure of registering at least 300 students, which is more than 230% higher than the challenge faced by the project partners. In addition, in the advance of the courses, the technicians of the consortium have solved doubts to more than 50 students.
On the other hand, through the technical advisory service, the experts of Rehabilite have resolved more than 130 queries from individuals on energy efficiency interventions in their homes and their possible financing.
Information and decision making tools
Among the information and decision making tools available on the Transnational Platform to Support the Financing of Energy Rehabilitation Rehabilite, one can consult the "Sudoe Methodology. Guide for the preparation of an ex ante evaluation, focusing on energy renewal in the building sector", one of the main products of this European initiative which presents an essential standardised methodology for the drafting of ex ante studies and the implementation of financial instruments for energy rehabilitation in the Sudoe space regions.
Another interesting tool elaborated by the project is the Map of Experiences of Financial Instruments, in which more than 118 international good practices of financing in rehabilitation can be consulted, which can serve as a reference.
These results, together with the planned pilots -whose implementation will take place during the next semester-, seek to support in a comprehensive way the overcoming of investment barriers to rehabilitate private housing and public construction, thus covering the needs of the regions that make up the Sudoe space and facilitating a real transfer of knowledge from a European initiative to the users themselves, belonging to the field they belong to.