Most of the European social housing stock were built between the 1940s and 1970s, when energy efficiency was not a priority. As a result, nowadays the low rental prices of social housing are offset by the high heating and electricity costs, with a sensible increasing of energy poverty in the European Union.
On average, it has been observed that in Europe an improving of 10% in energy efficiency results in a decrease of 2,1% in the energy poverty rate. SUPER-i aims to support the funding of energy efficiency refurbishment of social housing stocks across Europe and to increase the share of renewable energy in the final energy consumption, supporting the European Commission’s efforts to implement the European Green Deal. The social impact of energy efficiency renovations of social housing is expected to sensibly reduce energy poverty.
Risk mitigation for the low-income households involves attracting private parties that can help the public agencies, like regions and local governments, with a quick implementation of the energy efficiency projects without burdening the public finances. So far, the sector of social housing has been quite unattractive for the private investors. SUPER-i aims to gradually increase the private investments by fostering tailored public- private partnerships and roadmaps.
The objective of SUPER-i is to provide a meaningful contribution to generating investments and collecting data on energy efficiency in the social housing sector at the European level. At the same time, SUPER-i will tackle energy poverty through energy efficiency renovations thus increasing the health and social conditions of the users. The presence of three demo sites located in Italy, Denmark and Slovenia will allow SUPER-i to test the innovative financing schemes in a real-life trial.
While contributing to generate a significant flux of investments, SUPER-i will collect data on energy efficiency to develop efficient financial schemes and management strategies. SUPER-i points to establish a direct dialogue, at local government level, between financial institutions, other private investors, social housing managers and the Energy Services Companies.
SUPER-i aims to leave a mark in the European social housing and energy efficiency markets that is going to last beyond the life span of the project itself, implementing effective and reproducible actions, investment pipeline, roadmaps and building a portal designed to become the European reference point and hub for enterprises, stakeholders and institutional and private investors.
The SUPER-i project started in September 2021 with a kick-off meeting chaired by CIVIESCO SRL that saw the participation of 13 partners from 6 different countries. SUPER-i is funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the topic Financing for energy efficiency investments – Smart Finance for Smart Buildings.
