At the request of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO, formerly NL Agency) in the spring of 2014 CE Delft and Merosch conducted an interim review of the ‘Excellent Areas’ programme, as agreed in the Spring Agreement of 28 June, 2012.
The aim of the interim review is to provide insight into what the ‘Excellent Areas’ programme has to date contributed at a national level to preparing the market for the tightening of the EPC (Energy Performance Coefficient) agreed to in the Spring Agreement of 22 April, 2008. As of 2011 the EPC for new-build dwellings was tightened from 0.8 to 0.6 and at the beginning of 2015 to 0.4. The programme contributes to market preparation by providing the know-how required for the more stringent standards.
In the areas participating in the programme new-build already satisfies an EPC at least 25% more stringent than the current or then-valid EPC standard, or will do so in the future. The research questions addressed in this review study relate to three issues: the cited know-how and its transfer to the market; assessment of the policy instruments employed; and the policy to be adopted on future tightening of the EPC. This interim review considers the programme as a whole, not the individual areas concerned, but rather the national level.
The first stage of the review consisted of interviews with 25 people professionally up-to-speed on the ‘Excellent Areas’ programme and/or energy efficiency developments in the new-build market. The second stage was a web-based survey among those involved in the nineteen areas participating in the programme.