2023 Cost-Optimum Study for Residential and Nonresidential buildings in the Brussels-Capital Region

Mission objectives

To determine, in accordance with European Directive 2010/31/EU, the cost-optimal energy performance levels for new and existing residential and non-residential buildings, and to assess the suitability of energy performance requirements against these levels, whilst identifying the most cost-effective renovation strategies.

Achievements and impact

• Definition of a representative set of reference buildings reflecting Brussels’ building stock.
• Identification of energy-efficiency improvement measures and associated costs (capital expenditure, energy, maintenance).
• Development of a calculation tool in the Python programming language, utilising genetic algorithm-based optimisation to process and manage billions of possible combinations of measures.
• Determination of the cost-optimal solutions from among all combinations of improvement measures.
• Verification of the energy performance of these cost-optimal solutions against the requirements of European regulations.
• In a complementary strand, identification of the most cost-effective renovation solutions to achieve the objectives of the regional renovation strategy.