German companies looking for local partners for energy efficient construction – Buildings biggest consumers of energy in Serbia

Buildings are the biggest consumers of energy in Serbia, consuming 46%, and the reconstruction of old buildings would lead to considerable savings, it was said at the Energy Efficiency in Buildings conference, organized by the German-Serbian Chamber of Commerce (AHK) and sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

At the conference, nine German construction companies visited Serbia, aiming to find partners in the field of energy efficient construction, as Sebastian Ulm, a representative of the German ministry, told eKapija.

– Energy transition in Germany is carried out through three measures: efficiency, usage of renewable energy sources and the connecting of sectors – Ulm said and emphasized that RES in Germany in 2017 produced one in each three kWh, whereas the primary consumption of power in the building sector has dropped by 16% since 2008 – Ulm said.



– We often discuss which energy source is the best. The emphasis has now been put on RES, but the best energy source of all is, in fact, saving – said the vice president of AHK Serbia, Bojan Predojevic.

Predojevic said that, in the sectors of building, transport and industry, EUR 100 can be saved per capita, which, he says, means that in the EU, with 500 million citizens, EUR 50 billion could be saved each year, and in Serbia, EUR 700 million.

He says that, in today's society, the concept of “energy poverty” was born, which, as he explains, covers the demographic strata that spend more money on energy than others.

– In Serbia, up to five times more energy per square meter is used for heating certain facilities than in the EU. That is why the concept of energy efficiency in buildings is growing more and more important in Serbia – Predojevic pointed out.

He reminds that the law proscribes that facilities whose construction or reconstruction started after September 30, 2012, need to have an energy passport, which shows the quality of the building, the comfort, the consumption of energy and the future costs.

Also, as he says, charging for heating per consumption in new buildings has become mandatory in Serbia. According to the data of the Ministry of Energy, 90% of the buildings meet the technical requirements for this and now it's a matter of finding a way of having residential units switching to this type of heating.

Predojevic emphasizes that there are numerous construction sites in Belgrade at the moment, where new residential and office buildings are being raised and where the facades of existing buildings are being reconstructed with materials which will help save energy.

He adds that there is an apparent continuing positive trend in the construction sector and that the value of the works carried out grew by 21.6% in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the same period last year.

– Also, the number of building permits issued in March grew by 1.1% compared to the same month last year, amounting to 1,502 permits – Predojevic said.

Dusan Ignjatovic of the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade says for eKapija that the situation concerning energy efficient building in Serbia is not drastically different from that in EU states, but that it is largely based on private initiatives.



– Individual buildings are often too expensive for reconstruction, and there's no model for the public ones. The Faculty of Architecture has therefore carried out the project Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings in cooperation with the University and GIZ, stressing the implementation of a typology of residential and school facilities in the process of the reconstruction of buildings – Ignjatovic says and adds that GIZ has developed software for calculating energy efficiency in buildings.

Germany aims to become climate neutral by 2050, that is, to spend 80% less primary energy, says Christian Mueller, a representative of the German Energy Agency (dena).

– By 2050, a total of 11 million buildings need to be reconstructed in Germany. The technical solutions exist, and now we need to overcome obstacles such as the lack of skilled workforce, as well as the relatively high costs of the repair, which takes a long time – Mueller says and adds that the aim of energy efficient construction is for a building to produce as much energy as it spends.



– When a building is being reconstructed with energy efficiency in mind, one needs to consider the quality, the speed, the price and the comfort. In order to achieve the necessary speed, the process is moved from the construction site to the factory and, from 2013 to 2015, the time needed for the reconstruction dropped from two weeks to one day – Mueller pointed out.

Other speakers at the conference included Cleo Schmid of Fichtner GmbH, Marc Bollmann of getAir GmbH, Guenter Klee of LED-Light Germany GmbH, Peter Gmeiner of Lehmorange-emma Gmeiner, Andreas Lehmann of LUNOS Luftungstechnik GmbH, Wolfgang Bonder of Material Innovative Gesellschaft GmbH, Otto Pravida of Pravida Bau GmbH, as well as representatives of the project team of GIZ Serbia.

I. Milovanovic

AHK Srbija

Arhitektonski fakultet Beograd

GIZ Beograd

German Serbia Chamber of Commerce

German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

German Energy Agency

dena

Fichtner GmbH

getAir GmbH

Gunter Klee

LED Light Germany GmbH

Lehmorange emma Gmeiner

LUNOS Luftungstechnik GmbH

Material Innovative Gesellschaft GmbH

Pravida Bau GmbH

Sebastian Ulm

Bojan Predojević

Dušan Ignjatović

Christian Mueller

Cleo Schmid

Marc Bollmann

Guenter Klee

Peter Gmeiner

Andreas Lehmann

Wolfgang Bonder

Otto Pravida

energy efficiency

energy efficient construction

energy efficiency in buildings

construction in Serbia