Press Release: 16 nearly Zero Energy Hotels Inspiring Europe to achieve nearly Zero Energy targets

Sixteen hotels across seven European countries (Croatia , France, Greece , Italy, Romania, Spain and Sweden) have been selected to become European neZEH Pilot Hotels . These hotels are to become inspiring frontrunners to the European hotel industry as examples of good practice to achieve nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB) performance levels. Each large scale renovation plan includes not only challenging energy efficiency measures and the integration of renewable energy solutions but also a change in behaviour of management, staff and guests as they interact with the hotel.  

Pilot hotel selection began in 2014 when public calls were launched in each country. This was followed by a number of awareness raising activities, such as launch events and workshops. The project reached out to over 4.000 European hotels resulting in 85 applications from hoteliers wishing to be part of the neZEH initiative.  

A rigorous selection process was applied to choose 40 candidate pilot hotels . Each candidate hotel was offered an energy pre-audit . Based mainly on pre-audit results sixteen pilot hotels were selected. These sixteen were offered energy audits conducted by certified energy auditors. Each audit  proposed energy efficiency/RES measures and estimated the associated renovation costs. Subsequent  feasibility studies that included Return of Investment calculations for alternative intervention scenarios provided support for hoteliers as to the best way to move forward towards neZEH targets.  

The neZEH project has been able to offer  several benefits to the 16 selected pilot hotels : access to technical expertise; implementation and interpretation of energy audits with technical solutions and Return of Investment calculations; feasibility studies; technical advice on tendering, selection of contractors and monitoring; identification of financing opportunities; hotel staff training; access to marketing tools; increased market visibility at national and EU/International level.

At the same time, all  pilot hotels have expressed a commitment to large scale renovation plans to accomplish nZEB goals and to share the neZEH experience to others in their region and beyond.  

The  planning process of all 16 renovation projects has begun  and, based on strategic decision making, some hotels have already started the renovation process. It is a long-term process but many lessons will be learned as the pilot hotels move towards Nearly Zero-Energy status. 

The neZEH Pilot Hotels are:

More information on the pilot hotels can be found on www.nezeh.eu

The European initiative neZEH

neZEH is co-funded by the European Commission within the frame of the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme, aiming to  accelerate the rate of large scale renovations of hotels into nearly zero energy buildings ( nZEB ), by providing technical advice to committed hoteliers and demonstrating flagship nZEB projects in the European hospitality sector.  

The neZEH TEAM

CONTACTS: Technical University of Crete, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Lab, Mrs Stavroula Tournaki • +30 28210 37861 • stavroula.tournaki@enveng.tuc.gr • info@nezeh.eu • www.nezeh.eu