ZenN: Nearly Zero Energy Neighbourhood

The research project ZenN, Nearly Zero Energy Neighbourhoods, aims to reduce energy use in existing buildings and neighbourhoods. The residential areas that are participating in the project and in conjunction with the renovation of these areas a number of specific measures will be implemented.
The three main challenges in connection with the near-zero renovation of existing buildings faced by the ZenN project are: 1) Technical challenges, 2) Financial challenges and 3) Property structure challenges.
The project’s goals are to: 1) demonstrate the feasibility of innovative low energy renovation processes for buildings at the neighbourhood scale, 2) identify, optimize and disseminate the most promising management and funding methods to facilitate large-scale implementation, 3) develop, improve and launch ambitious replication plans at several scales (local, regional etc.).
Currently, the operation of buildings is one of the main sources of energy usage in Europe. Given current construction rates, 80 percent of the European building stock that will exist in 2050 is already built, and most of this existing stock suffers from poor energy performance. Therefore, the efficient streamlining of low or zero energy building renovation processes, involving both significant energy efficiency increases and renewable energy supply, constitutes a key action in order to achieve current EU-targets for energy consumption and emission reduction. This will also have a positive effect on unsustainable energy supply and consumption trends.
The ZenN-project focuses on the zero energy building renovation process through the implementation and study of five demonstrations near Zero Energy Renovation projects at neighborhood scale. The demonstration projects are located in a number of cities located in northern, central and southern Europe. Furthermore, the project encompasses the development of a series of research and dissemination actions associated with these demonstration projects.
The ZenN-project website contains several publications and deliverables.