In a strategic plan for the municipality, the town council of Valladolid , in Spain, has given top priority to the renovation of its heritage buildings to achieve nearly zero energy districts.

Retroffiting older buildings has become an industry in its own right in Europe. To compete, various players need to innovate.

There is nothing like the real world to reveal a project’s true worth. This is why a project called BRICKER will test its mettle out by retrofitting public buildings situated in three different countries in three different climatic zones .

Civil servants of the Government of Extremadura, located in Mérida, Spain, will have to work under challenging conditions when retrofitting public buildings with technological solutions based on renewable energy.

Transforming districts into near-zero energy consumption urban areas could be a reality in the next few decades.

The quest towards low energy consumption in city districts requires many changes not only at building level, but also at district level.

Batteries are unanimously seen as key drivers of the energy transition .

Each year over 3.5 million tourists from all over the world visit Pompeii to admire the ruins left by the eruption of the Vesuvius that, in 79 AD, engulfed it together with the nearby city of Herculaneum.

The ongoing energy crisis, which started in summer 2021 due to low natural gas supply and which further deteriorated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has highlighted the urgent need for a more independent European energy policy .

In the city, the famous Cabanyal district which had been home to a local fishing community for a long time, has recently been transformed into a testing ground for numerous energy efficiency techniques.

In the mid-90s, when he was 9 to 12 years old, Tommy DeVoss broke into the computer systems of global fast-food and pharmaceutical companies. He also hacked into organisations such as the US government, the US military, and NASA .

Maguy Soldevila is a former art teacher. Some years ago, she quit the frenzy and the pollution of the French city of Lyon to move into a typical house of the 1960s, in the small village of Sail-sous-Couzan.

Cities, with their concentration of services, economic opportunity, mobility and social interaction, have proved endlessly attractive to humans.

Santa Casa da Misericordia de Serpa is a well-established Portuguese social institution that runs hospitals, nursing homes and housing projects for elderly.

María Regidor co-owns a mini-hydro power plant in Spain, which produces part of the electricity provided to the residents of the Castile and León region.

Energy consumption in the non-residential sector, such as public and industrial buildings, is typically about 40% higher than in the residential sector.

There is much need to develop energy efficient solutions for residential buildings in Europe. The EU-funded project, MeeFS , due to be completed by the end of 2015, is developing an innovative multifunctional and energy efficient façade system to retrofit residential buildings.

CARTIF III is a new building that forms part of an applied research institute, called the CARTIF Technology Centre, based in Valladolid, Spain. This building is singular.

Innovative solutions are required to improve the energy efficiency of the existing residential building stock in Europe. But combining such innovation with better management and new business models creates unique retrofitting opportunities .

Cities substantially contribute to European air pollution as they are the source of about 36% of the total CO 2 emissions. Modern cities therefore raise sustainability concerns.