ABRACADABRA is based on the prior assumption that non-energy-related benefits play a key role in the deep renovation of existing buildings. In particular, ABRA actions will focus on the creation of a substantial increase of the real estate value of the existing buildings through a significant energy and architectural transformation. The central goals of the proposal consist of an important reduction of the pay back time of the interventions, a strengthening of the key investors’ confidence, increasing quality and attractiveness of the existing buildings’ stock and, finally, reaching a concrete market acceleration towards the Nearly Zero Energy Buildings target. The actual investment gap in the deep renovation sector is due to the fact that high investments are required up-front and they are generally characterised by an excessively high degree of risk and long payback times. It is therefore necessary to develop harmonized, concerted and innovative actions to unlock the needed public and private funds, fill the energy efficiency investment gap and ultimately contribute to re-launch the construction market and create new jobs. Therefore, ABRA aims at demonstrating to the key stakeholders and financial investors the attractiveness of a new renovation strategy based on AdoRe, intended as one (or a set of) Assistant Building unit(s) - like aside or façade addictions, rooftop extensions or even an entire new building construction - that adopt the existing buildings (the Assisted Buildings). The creation of these new Assistant Buildings’ Additions integrated with Renewable Energy Sources aims at reducing the initial investment allocated for the deep renovation of the existing building creating an up-grading synergy between old and new. The ABRA strategy results in the implementation of a punctual densification policy that has been proven capable of fostering the investments in deep renovation of the existing built environment throughout Europe

Deep renovation – the idea of capturing the full economic energy efficiency potential of existing buildings with focus on building envelopes – leads to remarkable energy savings. As nearly all of Latvia’s stock of multifamily residential buildings continues to rapidly deteriorate due to harsh weather conditions and lack of proper maintenance, the idea is attractive. Realizing this potential requires designing, financing and implementing complex energy efficiency investments, but today nearly all apartments in Latvia are privately owned. Practice shows that individual owners are inadequately organized to manage their collective property. Combined with a lack of awareness and technical knowledge, limited availability of funding, high risk perception and reluctance for debt financing, the barriers overwhelm most people. A concept that addresses these constraints is Energy Performance Contracting (EPC). A key feature of EPC is that the provider, an energy service company (ESCO), guarantees energy savings. SUNShINE supports public and private ESCO's and leads to an innovative investment scheme with a pipeline of projects worth €30m, guaranteed savings over 26GWh/year, and 202020m2 of deeply renovated buildings. A major objective is to demonstrate the financial viability of deep renovation via suitable financial engineering of public funds and private capitals. The proposed approach is simple, yet very innovative: most ESCOs have limited balance sheet capacity and are not able to support much long term debt. So re-financing is usually achieved by selling future cash flows (receivables) by a forfaiting transaction. After this transaction the ESCO continues to guarantee energy savings for the entire EPC term (15-20 years). Unfortunately, in emerging EPC markets like Latvia, there are not enough track records, so banks are not yet ready to offer these services to ESCOs. The project delivers the same service by establishing a special purpose fund for EPC.

The energy transition of homes toward the EU decarbonisation targets involves many options and choices, the average citizens cannot navigate this maze and identify the best solutions for them. Professionals providing relevant services encounter substantial costs in tailoring their services to individual potential customers due to unavailability of essential data from actual households. DECODIT will develop digital services to support citizens on decision making for participated in the energy transition through co-created services and customer journeys. DECODIT will deliver tools that clearly present concrete, personalised & comparable propositions to citizens for future-proofing their homes based on federated, data-driven services from multiple, diverse service providers. Thus, citizens will be able to compare and select the options that best fit their specific situation and personal needs via apps supporting natural language interfaces, so that citizens with low energy or digital literacy can benefit. Also, DECODIT will facilitate financing for the selected interventions through cross-sector, data-driven loan underwriting approaches to reduce entry barriers for capital providers, hence unlocking consumer investment in home upgrades. DECODIT will contribute in shaping the smart energy landscape with critical enablers, such as enabling business models and market & regulatory conditions. Project results will be demonstrated in four European countries (Latvia, Spain, Greece, Switzerland) that are very diverse in terms of building characteristics, cultural and regulatory frameworks, climate conditions, economic capabilities, etc. Piloting activities will be held under the supervision of market actors that span the value chain needed for exploitation (energy suppliers, ESCO, DSO, energy communities).