© BMWK

This is what it’s all about: Prefabricated elements can make it possible to improve the energy performance of buildings – quickly and cheaply.

Germany’s building stock causes a whopping 40 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, and experts say that our buildings need to be fully modernised by 2045. This includes not only state-of-the-art insulation, but also a wide range of technical solutions like heat pumps, ventilation and photovoltaic modules. So far, however, the modernisation rates have been too low. In many cases, it’s not a question of a lack of intent: rather, the sticking point is the shortage of skilled workers or construction materials, and problems with on-site logistics.

Serial retrofitting – an innovative approach to renovation – can offer help with this. Roof and façade elements which have been prefabricated off-site and prefabricated technology which is already integrated into the elements of the building can make it possible to improve the energy performance of buildings in a rapid and sophisticated way. This cuts retrofitting costs and the time needed on-site.

A pilot project with federal funding run by the Hamelin-based company ecoworks GmbH, the first German firm to specialise in serial, carbon-neutral modernisation of buildings, shows that this innovative idea can work. Whereas 95 per cent of the products are made on-site in conventional modernisation work, ecoworks moves 80 per cent to the factory.