Reduction of embodied emissions is crucial for achieving sustainable and low-carbon building practices. GreeNest creates an ecosystem that integrates CO2 neutral building materials (reused, recycled and locally sourced biogenic materials) and renewable energy sources (abiotic components) into the building design, together with human response and natural/green systems (biotic components) to demonstrate resource efficient construction that needs less materials and implements energy-efficient circular construction practices. The project targets 100% carbon free construction through the application of biogenic materials that store carbon, the reduction of embodied emissions by 50% with respect to NZEB standard, ZEB or even positive energy standards via renewable energy sources with remaining primary energy consumption less than 30-40 kWh/m2, reduction of GHG emissions by 60% and increased productivity of construction by >30%. GreeNest delivers a palette of innovative solutions for new buildings, addressing all stages of the building’s life, from the design stage up to the end of the building’s lifetime and disposal stages (including re-use and recycling of components). It proposes sustainable envelope components based on low carbon and carbon-neutral market mature materials, using on-site renewable energy, reducing waste, enhancing productivity of construction through digitization and demonstrating circular economy principles. The innovative solutions will be fully demonstrated in four real and two virtual new construction projects in five countries using local and regional value chains increasing the potential for replication across Europe. The GreeNest consortium benefits from a strong industrial and commercial involvement with 11 SMEs 1 Large Company 3 Universities, 3 Associations and 2 Public bodies from 8 European countries.

PLURAL aims to design validate and demonstrate a palette of versatile, adaptable, scalable, off-site prefabricated plug and play facades accounting for user needs (“Plug-and-Use” kits). Three different core systems are assessed, coupling heating-cooling, ventilation, heat harvesting systems with smart windows, 3D printing, low carbon footprint and nano-enabled coating materials to reduce the building total primary energy consumption to less than 60 kWh/m2 per year and ensure on-site renewable energy generation to more than 50 kWh/m2 reaching NZEB status for different European climates and different residential building typologies. A BIM based big data management platform and a Decision Support Tool (DST) are coupled to enable the optimal component selection, and integration, best PnU kit design, speedy and low-cost manufacturing and installation. Renewable energy and smart control systems are coupled with low environmental footprint prefabricated façade components to create the integrated all-in-one PnU kits for post war residential building deep renovation. The project creates best practice renovation examples for the residential sector based on innovation and competitiveness, with benefits for the citizens and the environment. It develops business cases and models for key stakeholders and improves the life cycle based performance standards applied in the building sector. The solutions are implemented in three real and three virtual residential buildings to evaluate reduction in renovation time and costs, the PnU kit performance, carbon saving and users’ acceptance. The selected buildings cover all European climatic zones and are representative residential typologies. PLURAL will achieve at least 50% reduction in the time required for deep renovation of e.g. multi-family blocks. 58% reduction in renovation costs will be achieved through off-site prefabrication lean manufacturing and construction, interactively supported by the BIM based platform and DST.

HYBUILD will develop two innovative hybrid storage concepts: one for the Mediterranean climate primarily meant for cooling energy provision, and one for the Continental climate primarily meant for heating and DHW production. HYBUILD action is a systematic approach for developing operationally integrated thermal and electric components and systems from TRL4 to TRL6 and beyond. The hybrid storage concepts are based on: a compact sorption storage, based on a patented way to integrate an innovative adsorbent material within an efficient high surface heat exchanger, a high density latent storage, based on a high performance aluminum micro-channel heat exchanger with additional PCM layers, and an efficient electric storage. The balancing of thermal and electrical energy flows will be realized by seamless integration of electric building components in a DC coupled system and by efficient conversion and upgrading of electric surplus and renewable thermal energy sources by compression and adsorption heat pumps. The components will be integrated to realize the full-scale hybrid storages (with overall volume between 1 and 2 m3), which will be properly managed by advanced control and building energy management systems (BEMS), able to optimize the interactions between components and district network. Such a configuration will allow reaching energy savings ranging between 20 and 40%, on yearly basis, both in Mediterranean and Continental climate for non-connected and district-connected buildings. HYBUILD hybrid storages will be used to upgrade existing building configurations and monitored in three different demo sites in near-life operation, both for non-connected and district-connected buildings in different climates.

The SolBio-Rev project will develop a flexible energy system suitable for building integration based on renewables for covering a large share of energy demand (heating/cooling/electricity). Its flexibility is derived from the long-term collaboration of key industrial partners with research organisations, having in mind the large variety of EU buildings, especially non-residential (types, uses and sizes). The overall objective is to develop a configuration based on renewables that allows covering all heating and cooling demand and a variable electricity demand (from zero up to even 100%) in a cost-effective manner. This configuration is based on solar, ambient and bioenergy, while it is suitable to be installed in various buildings types and sizes without any geographical restriction. The main technologies included have already proven their performance and they are combined with the aim to exploit all possible energy flows/sources, ensuring their cost-effectiveness compared to standard solutions. The SolBio-Rev concept is based on solar thermal collectors with vacuum tubes combined with thermoelectrics, a cascade thermal chiller with electrical-driven heat pump for very high performance under cooling operation even at extreme hot conditions, a reversible heat pump/ORC for enhancing flexibility and switching operating modes between summer and winter, exploiting all available solar heat, and an advanced biomass boiler coupled with the above ORC for CHP operation. A smart control is also envisaged to manage and optimise the system operation with user-friendly features. The project also includes dissemination and communication activities to ensure outreach of its results, as well as an active participation of end-users and installers in the technology development. Moreover, exploitation activities include long-term deployment path development through a technology roadmap.