The purpose of the European Commission-funded LIFE Programme RENOVERTY project is to increase energy efficiency address and energy poverty in vulnerable rural districts in Central Eastern, Southern Eastern and Southern Europe. The latter will be achieved by setting the methodological and practical framework for the co-development of individual tailor-made Renovation Energy Efficiency Roadmaps to address the needs of energy poor households in the regions under study, with the contribution of all actors involved in the energy efficiency value chain.
This report aims to contribute to this objective by expanding RENOVERTY activities, coupling the strengths of energy system modelling with qualitative and semi-quantitative techniques guiding us from the (i). updated framework of energy efficiency and energy poverty in rural areas, the (ii). stakeholders need assessment, and the (iii). RENOVERTY fieldwork (i.e., energy audits), as derived from the previous RENOVERTY report: “Updating the energy poverty and energy efficiency framework in rural areas across the EU”), to the application of the modelling assessment framework in real-life pilots (the rural region of Osona in Spain, the rural region of Parma in Italy, Bükk and SMB in Hungary, Sveta Nedelja and Žumberak in Croatia, Tartu in Estonia, Zasavje in Slovenia, and Coimbra in Portugal), allowing for the evaluation of several Energy Efficiency Measures based on their impact in households’ energy profiles and technoeconomic viability.
To do so, we employ and present the results from the Dynamic high-Resolution dE-mand-sidE Management (DREEM) model. DREEM is employed to apply an evaluation framework that will determine the most suitable Energy Efficiency Measures in each case study.
Modelling results provide detailed information on the energy-saving potential, CO2 emissions, and technoeconomic viability of different energy efficiency measures, indicating diverse results across the different case studies.
Overall, our analysis includes findings and recommendations, which if considered could support stakeholders and end-users to recognise and address the specificities of rural areas when it comes to the implementation of Energy Efficiency Measures, while contributing to the effective design and implementation of energy efficiency policies to address energy poverty in rural contexts.