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European Solar-Shading Organisation vzw

ES-SO

ES-SO is a not-for-profit organization to Belgian Law (ES-SO vzw) established in Brussels.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Guidance to Member States and market actors to unlock private investments in energy efficiency (EED recast)

26 Feb 2024

ES-SO (European solar shading organisation) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the call for evidence "Unlocking private investment in energy efficiency guidance to Member States and market actors". Europe is getting hotter. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), between now and 2050 the average number of days per year our continent will require A/C will increase by around 30 % . This will significantly increase energy demand and associated GHG emissions for space cooling in buildings for the next decades. The recent Guidehouse study(see annex) proves that automated solar shading can minimize energy use, largely mitigates GHG emissions and at the same time adapt the European building stock to climate change effects such as the growing issue of overheating. The conclusion is that switching from more A/C to dynamic solar shading systems could reach some 285 billion accumulated savings from 2020 till 2050. In terms of energy consumption, an uptake of dynamic solar shading can save up to approximately 60% of electricity for space cooling by 2050 or approx. 870 TWhel of saved final energy accumulated from 2020 to 2050. A saving that will be made by the end users paying their energy bill. Therefore it is important for the EU to issue guidance to both its Member States and private market actors to channel investments efficiently and effectively into measures like solar shading, because these are not a priority to consumers to invest their money in it. https://es-so.com/
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Meeting with Pascal Arimont (Member of the European Parliament)

10 Nov 2022 · Energy performance of buildings

Response to Revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU

21 Feb 2022

ES-SO welcomes this Recast which is necessary to reach the European Union’s increased climate ambition, as only 10% of EU buildings are part of the energy performance certificate class A and B, whereas almost 75% of class D and E. The EPBD should be even more ambitious and at the same time it should not leave to Member States the sole responsibility of choosing the architectural and technological solutions. Despite the numerous benefits of cost effective solar shading solutions, their potential is still largely untapped in the Commission’s proposal. ES-SO welcomes the requirements for Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for existing buildings, as it will boost renovation of the worst performing ones. To go further, it should plan to retrofit Technical Building Systems (TBS), of which solar shading should be part (see our paper on our EPBD priorities). ES-SO is pleased with the integration of the references made to resilience, overheating and adaptation to climate change that we have called upon. The overheating risk in Europe is already a reality, adaptation of new and renovated futureproof buildings must become a top priority. Solar shading is a solution to adapt new or existing buildings to climate change, by preventing overheating. Adaptation to climate change should be part of the general objectives of the proposal, next to mitigation. National building renovation plans will need to include roadmaps for the phasing out of fossil fuels in heating and cooling by 2040. The first “fuel” is energy efficiency and this principle is key for the EPBD to comply with the GHG mitigation objective. Dynamic solar shading is an essential energy efficiency first solution that should always be recommended first to achieve the reduction of both cooling and heating energy consumption. Today reduction of the emission of buildings is very much focused on renewable energy. Decarbonisation of European building stock should in the first place rely on energy savings. EPBD guidelines should especially take into consideration the Energy Efficiency First Principle. Energy saving is sustainable and cost effective. This way we do not have to produce the energy which can be avoided in the first place. The latest Guidehouse study shows that further solar shading deployment will avoid up to 100 million tonnes of CO2 from now until 2050. ES-SO appreciates the necessary ambitious target of having all new buildings to be Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB) after 2030. Moreover, the introduction of smart buildings and a mandatory Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) for certain buildings means smarter, efficient, healthier and resilient buildings. Automated solar shading (part of SRI) will play its role as a smart energy efficiency first solution, by optimising solar management and limiting the need for heating and cooling in order to improve the energy performance of a building. Solar shading should have its rightful place as preferred recommendation for preventing overheating in the Energy Performance Certificates and Building Renovation Passports for new buildings and renovation. Furthermore, solar shading is a most cost effective investment as the Guidehouse study shows its accumulated savings of €285 billion from now till 2050. Solar shading should be included as overheating prevention technology in the list of energy efficiency measures that are supported financially. Access to sufficient daylight as well as good indoor air quality is vital to the health and comfort of Europeans who spend 90% of their time indoor. To that end, ES-SO welcomes the monitoring and regulation of environmental indoor quality in new buildings and those which undergo major renovation. However, thermal indoor comfort should also be explicitly included. Read more in attached document and on https://es-so.com/new/356-es-so-position-on-epbd-revision-2021 www.es-so.com
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Response to Revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU

22 Mar 2021

ES-SO, European Solar Shading Organzation comments on the Inception Impact Assessment “Revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU” ES-SO welcomes the EU Renovation Wave as announced by the EU Commission last October 2020, containing an action plan with concrete regulatory, financing and enabling measures, with the objective to at least double the annual energy renovation rate of buildings by 2030 and to foster deep renovations. It is also convinced that the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is necessary as one of the vehicles to deliver on the Renovation Wave. ES-SO’s input aim is to focus on provisions that are central to delivering a Renovation Wave that contribute to emission reduction, taking into people’s health and well- being and the attention of energy poverty. ES-SO Recommendations for the next legislative steps in EPBD and RES for building renovation in the EU are the following : 1. Preventing buildings from overheating has to be part of the renovation requirements next to insulation and ventilation. Global warming due to climate change and well insulated buildings affects the health and well-being of their occupants spending more than 90 % indoors. 2. Minimum energy performance standards for existing buildings based on the energy efficiency first principle has to include solar shading. Based on the key principle of energy efficiency first- to make sure we only produce the energy we really need solar shading should be considered first to cool a building. The energy performance certificate (EPC) has to include the “energy efficiency first” principle. Dynamic shading should be included in the renovation priorities and packages of member states. 3. Investment and well targeted funding for renovation has to include solar shading. Dynamic solar shading, as an important measure of the energy efficiency first principle, must be included in the financial schemes of national recovery and renovation plans to help reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of the building stock. But equally important to help medium and lower-income households, as well as vulnerable people making their dwellings more resilient and adaptive to global warming. 4. Widening the scope of RES Directive - Solar gain through windows is a natural source of energy. The solar energy entering through the windows is a free available natural source of energy. It is also a source of daylight which affects people’s health and well-being using their homes more than ever as a living and working place. These “useful free gains” reduce the need to produce energy and should therefore be recognised as useful gains from the building envelope (as a renewable energy source) in the RES Directive. Dynamic solar shading makes it possible to let in the free solar gains and diffuse daylight through the glazing to save on energy for heating and lighting in the most natural and useful way. Read the Position Paper on http://www.es-so.com/new/350-es-so-statement-on-the-renovation-wave-strategy See document attached ES-SO is a not-for-profit organization to Belgian Law (ES-SO vzw) established in Brussels. It is the umbrella organization of the professional solar shading associations in the European member states. Dynamic solar shading is a low carbon emission techno logy designed and manufactured in Europe. The industry consists of thousands of small to medium-sized companies, employing more than 450,000 people across the Member States and generating annual sales of over € 22 billion.
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Response to EU strategy for sustainable textiles

1 Feb 2021

ES-SO, the umbrella organisation of the European Solar Shading associations representing 450.000 workers in Europe, with an annual turnover of more than 22 billion Euros produced and innovatively developed, locally based on European knowhow. Dynamic solar shading applied externally and internally prevent windows from overheating, provide additional insulation, and use the free solar gains through windows for optimised sun and daylight management. See www.es-so.com ES-SO proposes the following to be taken into account: 1. Textiles are applied to such an immense variety of very different product types and over a very broad range of applications, we kindly request that the Commission are explicit about their scope expectations as they communicate with stakeholders on regulatory proposals / initiatives, etc. if they are to ensure the most relevant and efficient stakeholder engagement. 2. The solar shading industry is not one categorised by short product lifetimes the way that some other textiles industries clearly are today and so we request that regulatory instruments reflect their resulting lower environmental footprint. This is even more true given the high positive contribution that shading, and particular automated shading can make to the environmental footprint of a building through their ability to save up to 22% energy and CO² for heating and cooling as well as for lighting as shading offering optimised daylight for well-being and productivity in European buildings. It’s important that steps to improve shading textiles’ sustainability don’t inadvertently reduce the use of shading and therefore the sustainability benefits that they bring to a building. The majority of these shadings use innovative European locally produced innovative fabrics that respect REACH, are sustainable following European Standards and certifications with high barriers for them. There should be no further regulation without effective market-surveillance to identify and remove non-compliant product as this simply results in additional burden for compliant producers and a resulting un-even playing field benefitting non-compliant producers. 3. Further, we encourage that double regulation is avoided in the area of hazardous substances and request the Commission to use only the existing recognised and well-functioning regulatory vehicles of REACH and RoHS to manage hazardous substance use in textiles. 4. ES-SO applauds the ambition of the Commission in working to introduce greater material efficiency in textiles, but kindly requests that focus should be given to the sustainability outcomes that are sought rather than to the specific means by which those outcomes are achieved. With circularity initiatives the devil is often very much in the detail. Material efficiency initiatives that superficially appear set to generate positive sustainability results in fact would result in net-negative environmental consequences when one digs a little deeper into the details.
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Response to Establishment of a smart readiness indicator for buildings

10 Jul 2020

The smart readiness indicator should also look deeper into interoperability of the systems but also in the different domains as they are interconnected in the building. As for now systems are still more standalone and do not take (sufficienctly) into account the effects of other systems or even the impact of the building envelope. Further studies are needed where different systems /technologies are taken into account eg dynamic building envelope (such as shading devices for overheating) with heating/cooling and lighting taken into account the solar radiation impact on a building and its building elements. This also needs a skilled up of professionals. The results of these studies could lead to a further update of European Standards.
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Response to EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change

2 Jun 2020

Heatwave temperatures are around 4°C hotter than a century ago,and in the recent month of March 2020, average temperatures were almost two degrees Celsius above the 1981-2010 average, according to EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. In the documents of the European Commission we still see most attention goes to making buildings more energy efficient against heat loss, with attenton to the energy need for heating. But is Europe ready to protect its inhabitants from this extreme heat? The amount of energy used worldwide to cool buildings has doubled since the year 2000 and without efficiency gains, even this level could triple again by 2050. At what cost? Higher energy bills? Even worse, not reaching our climate goals? With regular heatwaves and extreme temperatures, solar shading devices applied on windows will be a vital element to prevent buildings from overheating in an energy-efficient manner. According to a study of ES-SO in 2015, Solar shading can deliver 22% energy savings and cut CO2 emissions by 137 Mt in buildings in Europe per year. As a measure to reduce energy poverty the use of solar shading should be financially stimulated to help people prevent the overheating risk in their houses as more people are affected by overheating than suffering from heating. www.es-so.com
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Response to Climate Law

5 Feb 2020

Energy consumption in buildings in Europe is 40% which is a huge potential to save energy. Climate change progress based on accurate climate data (2030-2050) shows that we move from high heating needs and only moderate cooling needs to a more balanced scenario in the mid- and long-term. See IEA Report 2018 – “The future of Cooling, Opportunities for energy efficient airco” projects a threefold growth of cooling in Europe by 2050. What we see now: EU Policy energy efficiency in buildings is mainly focused on heating energy based on historical climate data and European habits EPBD review 2018 on climate change present articles where active cooling using a lot of energy and GHG is explicitly addressed whereas shading (passive cooling) gets no attention, except for the EC Recommendations. In the Recommendation of the EU Commission on building renovation 8 May 2019 to implement the EPBD art 2.3.1.7 'estimate of the energy savings and wider benefits' (art 2 a (1) shading devices are recommended that protect buildings against overheating during heat waves that have a direct impact on a building's energy consumption by reducing the need for active cooling. Remark: this recommendation is equally valid for new buildings/homes where overheating risk also occurs due to the adapted construction methods (more insulation and airtight). In the Recommendation of the EU Commisison 7 June 2019 - 4.3.3 Pursuing the optimal energy performance of the building envelope - where in a footnote is mentioned the ‘energy balance’ approach, which takes into account both energy losses (related to heat loss) as well as energy gains (from passive capture of solar irradiance on buildings and building elements) when calculating the energy performance of a building or a building element of the building envelope, such as windows. In winter time windows need to insulate against cold temperature ( low U value) but also to let in free heat gains from solar radiation during daytime to reduce energy consumption for heating (high g- value) . In summer time windows need to be protected with shading (with very low g-value) to reject the heat coming in through the windows. Active cooling should be avoided as much as possible by first protecting the windows outside with dynamic shading. Advice to Policy makers: to include in the climate act and energy related policies for member states the right measures to protect citizens against climate change that prevent instead of cure. In particular, dynamic shading should become compulsory before using active cooling in the building codes of member states. See e.g France, Austria.
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