Belgium: The EIB and Wallonia join forces for energy-efficient public buildings in the region

Signature of three contracts under the RenoWatt programme

Joint press release - The Walloon government and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have committed to supporting energy-efficient public buildings in Wallonia. The first three public building renovation contracts published by the procurement agency RenoWatt were signed this morning in Leuze-en-Hainaut with Walloon Vice-Presidents Willy Borsus and Philippe Henry, EIB Vice-President Kris Peeters, Vice-President of the SRIW Management Committee Olivier Bouchat, and the mayors of the municipalities concerned. This initiative will contribute to Wallonia’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. The project is also important for the EIB as the EU climate bank, as it comes under its Climate Bank Roadmap for climate action and environmental sustainability.

Leuze-en-Hainaut, Flémalle and Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse will be the first towns and municipalities to benefit from this programme to renovate 11 public buildings to reduce their energy consumption, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the comfort of building occupants. 

The works will also have a positive impact on the local economy and on employment, with at least 1 263 hours of training planned under the contract. Considerable efforts have also been made by consortia to use social economy enterprises. As a result, these projects meet RenoWatt’s climate, economic and social goals, while helping public authorities to uphold their duty to set an example. 

RenoWatt is working on behalf of the Walloon government with backing from the ELENA programme, a joint initiative of the EIB and the European Commission that is managed by the Bank. 

Created in 2009 under the Horizon 2020 programme, European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA) has enabled €228 million in EU resources to be allocated, generating an estimated investment volume of €7.5 billion. ELENA has proven to be a strong and valuable partner in providing technical assistance to mobilise investments and implement projects, and was granted an additional €130 million in 2021 to continue its project finance and technical assistance activities.

RenoWatt is a one-stop shop that carries out energy audits and technical studies to conclude service and works contracts for the renovation of public buildings (energy performance contracts or design and build contracts). It selects buildings that are in need of renovation, pools them together, launches public procurement procedures and assists public entities in implementing projects.

RenoWatt currently has nearly a hundred members (towns, municipalities, provinces, emergency and police departments, hospitals, etc.) and its expertise continues to be requested by other public authorities. 

Following a two-year process involving building visits, studies, meetings and negotiations, today marks a very important milestone, as it means all the works can soon begin. It is the result of a joint effort between all the various partners involved.

According to Willy Borsus, “The Walloon building stock is old — 80% of the buildings were built before 1991. With RenoWatt, Wallonia is helping local authorities to improve the energy efficiency of public buildings in order to meet the EU target for public building renovation of 3% per year. A major milestone was reached in 2020, with the list of projects to be implemented under energy performance contracts concluded via RenoWatt exceeding €100 million in works. We have actually launched a similar model for businesses known as WalEnergie, under the Walloon recovery plan.”

Philippe Henry said: “The transition to a low-carbon society is underway. The energy renovation of public buildings is one of the key measures available to achieve Wallonia’s climate and energy goals. As such, RenoWatt will be included in the next air, climate and energy plan, which will formalise all of the actions taken by the government to comply with its EU obligations. Such actions had been expected as a result of the commitment under the regional policy declaration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% between 1990 and 2030. The plan is in the process of being jointly developed with all stakeholders, with concrete actions to address the climate challenge.”  

According to Kris Peeters, “The European Union has set itself the goal of decarbonising the EU building stock by 2050. The renovation of existing buildings is therefore the top priority for action in this sector. The contracts signed today by RenoWatt and Leuze-en-Hainaut, Flémalle and Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse mark another step towards the energy transition, and I am pleased to see that the projects are in line with economic and social as well as climate goals, which are also top priorities for the EIB. As the EU climate bank, we are delighted to be able to contribute to reducing energy consumption in Wallonia through ELENA.”

Olivier Bouchat said: “RenoWatt’s activities will not only improve the energy performance of Walloon public buildings, but will also help optimise the level of comfort for building occupants and significantly reduce CO₂ emissions. Promoting the local economy and employment while encouraging training are also a major focus. 

All of this will help public authorities to uphold their duty to set an example when it comes to the challenges of the energy transition. It is also a good reason to use RenoWatt’s services, whose comprehensive solution will enable public authorities to achieve these ambitious goals.”       

FLÉMALLE 

The municipality of Flémalle has awarded two lots to Luminus Solutions: 

LEUZE-EN-HAINAUT

The town of Leuze-en-Hainaut has awarded one lot to Equans:

SAINT-GEORGES-SUR-MEUSE

The municipality of Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse has awarded one lot to the Sénergies consortium of small and medium enterprises: 

What do RenoWatt’s partners say?

Marie Balland, energy advisor: “The municipality of Flémalle has already been committed to the energy transition for many years. I have been working at the municipality for about ten years. Together with Fréderic Vandelli, municipal councillor for the energy transition, we have been developing increasingly varied and ambitious projects for several years. We are committed to the Covenant of Mayors and subsidised projects such as POLLEC and Walloreno.

The RenoWatt project is a great opportunity for us to further step up the renovation of our buildings and to be supported by a team of professionals without whom we would certainly not have been able to enter into such energy performance contracts. It is a long-term project as it requires a lot of technical and administrative work. We are therefore delighted to finally be at the contract signature stage and look forward to seeing the renovation projects unfold.”

Lucien Rawart, mayor: “The town of Leuze-en-Hainaut has been able to benefit from comprehensive assistance thanks to RenoWatt, and has received support with the energy renovation study for some of its energy-intensive buildings, for which the estimated savings are at least 30%. We therefore opted for an energy performance contract for these three buildings. 

The investment will be substantial but should, like other projects under the RenoWatt programme, benefit from the grants provided in the Walloon recovery plan, as stipulated in the call for projects published in October 2021. We would like to thank RenoWatt’s staff for their professionalism and availability, without whom we would not even have been able to consider signing energy performance contracts for the energy renovation of our buildings and school facilities.”  

Francis Dejon, mayor: “The municipality of Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse is pleased to have had the opportunity to work with RenoWatt. We exchanged a lot of information before finalising this energy renovation project for three key municipal buildings.

After more than a year of work, coordination and discussions, the project has finally come to fruition. RenoWatt helped us to draft and analyse the specifications, and supported us with the energy studies and in applying for subsidies. Always available, it acted as our energy study office, our legal department and our financial department, working towards the same objective as the municipality to reduce our building energy consumption.”

Raoul Nihart, CEO of Luminus Solutions: “Amid a climate emergency and rising energy prices, Luminus Solutions helps its customers to meet the challenges of the energy transition by reducing their consumption and producing some of their energy locally from renewable sources. 

We are very pleased to have been selected by RenoWatt and the municipality of Flémalle to implement this energy performance contract. We would like to thank them for their trust and professionalism in developing this project. 

The work within the four buildings will be carried out exclusively with local partners and supervised by AAEG architects, which we also thank for its commitment to the project. 

From an environmental perspective, this energy performance contract will enable CO₂ emissions from buildings to be reduced by more than 30%, and to sustain this reduction in the long term.”

Marc Goessens, sales manager: “Since the introduction of the first energy performance contracts in Wallonia, we have been working as energy efficiency experts with RenoWatt and the beneficiary contracting authorities in the energy renovation of public buildings. Our continued work with RenoWatt contracts draws on our past experience with other energy performance contracts and the technical expertise of our teams. Alongside our private partners, most of which come from the social economy, we are delighted to be able to implement further energy efficiency improvement measures that meet the standards of the municipality of Leuze-en-Hainaut. The energy savings will drastically reduce its energy bill and carbon footprint, while also improving the comfort of occupants. At EQUANS, we want to continue working with public authorities for a decarbonised future and to offer our customers innovative solutions to achieve their goals.”    

André Jacquinet, representative of the Sénergies SME consortium: “Enersol has joined RenoWatt with the aim of giving local small and medium enterprises that are experts in their field access to this market. 

While the idea of grouping a set of public projects under one facilitator is interesting, it also entails difficulties linked to the procedure, the size of the contract and the lack of direct contact with the beneficiary contracting authority. These difficulties have been highlighted and some changes have already been made to resolve them. This dialogue between RenoWatt, the beneficiary contracting authorities and Damien Franzen architects enables the procedures and the role of each party to be adapted to achieve efficiency at all levels.”

Press kit