BARRIO

Fostering deep Building Renovation by Aggregating demand, developing business models and Rolling out IndustRialized prefabricated sOlutions for a decarbonized building stock

The BARRIO project, funded by the European Union’s LIFE program, aims to decarbonize buildings by aggregating demand at the neighborhood level, implementing prefabricated solutions for deep energy renovation, and creating a digital tool to connect the supply and demand of services.

BARRIO's Challenge

The main challenge of the BARRIO project is to overcome the fragmentation that exists in both the demand and supply of building energy renovation. The dispersion of property owners, the lack of coordination among various stakeholders, and difficulties in accessing efficient industrialized solutions make large-scale energy renovation complex and costly.

Additionally, the absence of economies of scale and the lack of solid business models for risk-sharing exacerbate the challenge, making the transition to a decarbonized building stock a slow and uneven process. This challenge is particularly urgent in light of the European Union’s goal to drastically reduce emissions by 2030.

BARRIO's Intervention

To address this challenge, BARRIO proposes an intervention strategy based on several key pillars. The first involves aggregating energy renovation demand at the neighborhood level, an approach that overcomes the fragmentation of individual owners and maximizes economies of scale.

Instead of isolated and scattered renovations, BARRIO coordinates interventions in building clusters, facilitating efficient planning and execution. This process includes the creation of an Aggregated Prefabricated Industrialized Plan (APP), a digital tool that not only aggregates demand but also connects this demand with an industrialized and prefabricated supply of energy renovation solutions.

The Defragmentation Multidisciplinary Toolkit (DMT) integrates this APP with a system to identify the specific needs of each building and define long-term renovation roadmaps. Furthermore, the project employs a flexible methodology to design business models that allow risk-sharing among the different stakeholders involved, including property owners, service providers, and financial institutions. This ensures that the solutions implemented are scalable and replicable in other markets.

The project also includes specific training for local actors to improve the quality of interventions and promote the active participation of all stakeholders.

Eight Partners and Four Pilots

The BARRIO project is being developed in collaboration with organizations from several European countries, including Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Belgium. These countries will participate in the implementation of four pilots, selected based on the maturity level of the energy renovation market in each territory. The pilots will cover different ecosystems with varied economic, climatic, and regulatory conditions, aiming to adapt and validate the APP tool and business models in diverse, real-world contexts.

For instance, in Spain, solutions will be tested in areas with high temperatures, where cooling buildings is crucial, while in Slovenia, the focus will be on improving insulation for cold climates. This diversified approach will allow the project to refine its solutions and ensure they can be successfully replicated in other European regions. The pilots will take place between 2024 and 2027, with the aim of demonstrating the technical and economic feasibility of large-scale interventions and facilitating the transition to a long-term decarbonized building stock.

B.Link, leveraging its experience and expertise in projects across various European programs, operates from a privileged position within a diverse network of projects, enabling it to bring practical and diversified knowledge to the BARRIO project. As the leader of WP6 – Sustainability, Replication, and Exploitation, B.Link coordinates tasks related to the project’s long-term vision, including the capitalization of other initiatives and projects, the capacity to replicate BARRIO’s results in other territories or sectors, impact on public policies, and the generation of business models. Additionally, in WP1, B.Link co-leads the project coordination, particularly in the financial domain.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.