Life-cycle cost and environmental assessment of nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEBs) in four European countries

Nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs) are required as the minimum standard for all new buildings in Europe by January 2021. These buildings should, according to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) [1], be cost optimal, i.e. the cost of constructing and operating the building over its lifetime should be at its minimum. The EU Horizon 2020 research project CoNZEBs, identify and assess technology solution sets that lead to significant cost reductions of new NZEBs in four EU member states. The project initially identified baseline costs for minimum energy performance buildings, NZEB and beyond NZEB in the four countries and then a number of solution sets with lower investment costs than those of typical NZEBs. The next step was to carry out life cycle cost and environmental assessment analyses on the identified solution sets and compare these to minimum energy performance, typical NZEB and beyond NZEB buildings. The results of this work for one of the countries – Denmark – is presented below as an example.