Major impulse for sustainability 22 million existing homes in North Sea Region (NSR)

Mass uptake of home renovations towards energy-neutral in the NSR is needed to meet EU energy and climate targets. In 2050 22 million houses have to be renovated towards energy neutral. The building sector in Europe is not creating the necessary production facilities and with the current techniques the process is too expensive. Which is why the European Programme Interreg NSR has supported the project INDU-ZERO, which aims to industrialize sustainable housing in an innovative way. Housing corporation Domijn is one of the partners.

Innovative Factory

Partners from six countries are cooperating in the project: The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway. The project, which runs for three years, is going to produce a blueprint for an innovative factory. These factories can be built in various European countries at the end of the project, in the summer of 2021. The production of the renovation packages which are needed for existing houses, will get a tremendous boost and the cost per house will go down considerably. So the project will contribute substantially to the national climate targets.

Renovation packages

There are already several initiatives that deal with the sustainable renovation of houses. These so called Net Zero activities are done with existing production means. The project INDU-ZERO has the advantage that it can start from scratch. It aims to realize a standard renovation package, that can be applied with minimal modifications per country. In a renovation package, which is placed as a jacket over the house, clever solutions are integrated for energy production and increase of the living comfort. For example solar panels, heat pumps and ventilation.

Mix of partners

The unique feature of the project is that it brings together parties from several countries and fields of expertise, who can look at the developments from different perspectives. Partners who have joined the project come from the education sector, the construction sector, housing corporations, industry and government, which makes it possible to link the technical content with production facilities right from the start of the project.

More information:

www.northsearegion.eu/indu-zero

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdYlLzDN06I