ET.20.015 – Catalysing energy transition in the building stock, trough innovating the value chain by reducing transaction costs.

The existing building stock accounts for around 40% of energy consumption. To reduce energy demand in and at the same time adapt the stock to the demands of 2050 is a major challenge. The Dutch Climate Agreement requires 200.000 existing buildings to be renovated with energy efficiency measures per year (i.e.,1000 per day)! Radical breakthroughs are necessary to reduce costs (e.g. from Euro 80.000 to Euro 40.000 per dwelling), to increase the building capacity, smoothen the renovation process, and scale up the demand. Product and other technological innovations are required to provide cheaper solutions and increase productivity in the construction sector. Additionally, many costs and processing time can be reduced by optimized and alternative value chains. The costs throughout the value chain – referred to as transaction costs – can be both tangible (e.g. premiums for insurance, legal fees, consulting fees) and intangible (e.g. time spent by homeowners in their customer journey, searching, communication, etc.). This proposal aims to dive into the transaction costs from the perspectives of all key stakeholders. The objectives are:
– Examine and learn from alternative supply chains (e.g. combined roles of stakeholders);
– Explore advantages of upscaled projects (e.g. number of renovated houses) by combined demand by joint groups of owners and/or combined supply by joint groups of producers (e.g. the approach in the ‘Renovatieversneller’);
– Explore natural moments for energy renovations and the advantages of combined investments for different purposes to reduce transaction costs (e.g. upgrading houses after change of owner)
– Evaluate policy instruments to drive down transaction costs (e.g. related to insurance, mortgage rates)
The consortium will be organized within the BTIC (Building and Technology Innovation Center www.btic.nu ) network and will bring together a multidisciplinary team with backgrounds in e.g. economics, psychology, construction management and policy analyses strongly linked to the Dutch construction industry and end users.

Keywords

building stock, energy transition, transaction costs, value chain

Other organisations

Bouwend Nederland, BTIC, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Koninklijke Ingenieurs NL, Techniek NL, TNO, TU, UT