CIRCE will participate in the €4.8 million project RINNO to address energy efficiency in residential homes in the European Union (EU) through new technologies, processes and business models. This includes employing new materials, assembly using robots and cobots, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and public capital financing through the Blockchain system.
The four-year RINNO project is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program. It will focus on developing solutions for the construction industry to accelerate (triple) the rate of deep renovation of inefficient buildings from an energy point of view across Europe , thus helping to achieve the 32.5% energy saving target set by the EU’s New Green Deal.
RINNO and CIRCE will achieve this through a combination of novel and innovative technologies, processes and business models. These include renewable materials and technologies, such as ‘plug-and-play’ modular building envelope solutions and hybrid renewable energy collection and storage.
Among the processes to be implemented within the project is the development of a digital twin that will integrate data from drones, computer vision, thermovision and augmented reality; simulation, modeling and optimization tools for renovation; and retrofit management tools, including optimization of the supply chain through cobots, robots, 3D printing, advanced supervision and monitoring, decision support systems … etc. Intelligent multi-agent building automation and control tools and training using interactive AR / VR will also be conducted.
Regarding business models, a smart contract (blockchain) enabled for crowdfunding and other collective financing will be developed; and another for energy efficiency enabled.
The solutions developed by RINNO will be demonstrated in four actual renovation projects in order to quantify and validate their impact throughout the entire process. The demonstration sites will be located in France, Denmark, Greece and Poland (in total 3,386 m2 of surface).
Starting in June 2020, RINNO will be led by Dr. Stefano Barberis at RINA Consulting in Genoa, Italy. In total, the RINNO consortium consists of 17 partners from Austria, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom. CIRCE will be responsible for developing an LCA (Environmental Life Cycle Analysis) and S-LCA (Environmental and Social Life Cycle Analysis) tool.during the RINNO project. This tool will be able to calculate the total LCA of a building thanks to the characterisation of the different parts that compose it. In addition, CIRCE will define the KPI (Key Performance Indicator) of the project together with the creation of a database of LCA and S-LCA, including the calculation of RINNO technologies and will develop activities related to the circular economy of the reforms.
Around 77% of residential buildings in the EU were built before 1990 and around 11% of Europe’s population continues to experience energy poverty due to poor quality buildings and, in particular, thermal inefficiency.
The European Commission estimates that a renewal rate of 3% per year is needed to meet the EU’s energy and environmental efficiency ambitions in a cost-effective way. Based on current renovation rates of 0.4% to 1.2%, depending on the country, it could take more than 100 years to renovate the entire building stock. In this way, RINNO provides a radical approach to reducing costs, disruptions and deep renovation times while increasing home energy efficiency, environmental performance and occupant satisfaction.
Consortium Partners: RINA Consulting Spa (Italy), Ethniko Kentro Erevnas Kai Technologikis Anaptyxis (Greece), Regenera Levante (Spain), Fundación Circe Centro de Investigación De Recursos Y Consumos Energéticos (Spain), Ekolab (Denmark), Avedøre Boligselskab (Denmark ), European Green Cities (Denmark), University Of Northumbria (UK), Bouygues Construction (France), K-Flex Polska (Poland), Teknologian Tutkimuskeskus VTT (Finland), Greenstruct (Greece), Elliniko Institouto Pathitikou Ktiriou (Greece) , Narodowa Agencja Poszanowania Energii (Poland), Pink Energie Und Speichertechnik (Austria), Motivian Anonymos Etaireia Kainotomon Lyseon Pliroforikis (Greece), and Dublin City University (Ireland).
More information about RINNO at https://rinno-h2020.eu/ – Energy Efficiency in homes
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 892071.