EPBD in Brussels - Capital region
NZEB definition
From 1st January 2015 onwards, all new buildings (housing, office or service buildings or schools) will have to be up to the Passive House standard that is to say the level of “nearly zero or very low energy consumption reached thanks to high energy performance”. For individual housing, the total primary energy consumption should be below 45 kWh/m²/y For offices, services units and educational units, the total primary energy consumption should be below (95-2.5*C) kWh/m2/y with C defined as the compactness, that is, the ratio between the volume enclosed and the loss area (maximum C is 4).
RES
No explicit share of RES is defined, but the calculation method of primary energy already includes the input of renewable energy.
Success story
When in September 2009 the new Government of Brussels Capital Region, motivated by the charismatic Minister of Environment Evelyne Huytebroeck, published a declaration of its policy towards mandatory implementation of the PH standard – at the beginning for its own buildings, the major stakeholders groups were, least to say, surprised – some to the extent of not believing. However, in May 2011 the Government adopted the new energy target regulation for all new construction (housing, offices and schools) from 2015. Now, since 1st January 2105, all new buildings and "deep renovation" in Brussels comply with the Passive House standard. But the enormous growth of Passive House construction was not just a straightforward consequence of the governmental decision: a number of incentive schemes and capacity building programs were initiated to promote the “energy revolution”. The new law itself provisioned for a period 3 years of "soft landing", allowing the gradual accumulation of best practices and experience. This allowed all sector representatives (construction federations, real estate federation, architects’ federations, engineers’ federations, national scientific and technical institute, NGOs - PMP and PHP involved, and the Minister) to become convinced in the long-term judiciousness of this policy and sign together the a common agreement for the implementation of the new regulations. As a result, there are more than 1,000,000 m2 of passive buildings (data as of 2014), and the number is growing with every single day.
