Nearly Zero Energy Hotels in Southern Europe (Invited Speech)
Hotels and other buildings of a certain size, frequently visited by the public, should set an example in environmental and energy performance. Moreover, according to the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) recast, being energy intensive buildings, they are at a high priority for becoming nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB). Even though they represent a specific category, along with restaurants, till today there is a lack of credible data for this type of buildings, especially taking into account the wide range of different typologies (coastal, mountain, urban, rural or business, resort, spa/wellness, bed & breakfast). In this work are presented the results of the actual energy performance of six south European countries (Greece, Croatia, France, Romania, Italy and Spain), analyzed in the framework of the nearly Zero Energy Hotels (neZEH) project, as participating countries. The project focused on providing technical assistance to existing pilot hotels for refurbishing into nZEBs, demonstrating the sustainability of investments towards zero energy and undertaking training and capacity building activities at regional, national and EU level. The results showed that the primary energy use for the hosting functions across all sixteen pilot hotels can decrease dramatically – from an average of 277 kWh/m2/y to an average of 102 kWh/m2/y; an average reduction of 63%. At the same time, Renewable Energy Sources share for the hosting functions can be increased from an average of 18% to an average of 46%. The analysis also showed that hotel non-hosting functions, i.e. other facilities that require special indoor environmental conditions, such as spa, kitchen etc., are more critical than the hosting functions; their primary energy use can decrease from an average of 727 kWh/m2/y to an average of 374 kWh/m2/y.