As part of Ireland’s commitment to decarbonising, one major area requiring focus is our building stock. The strategy for upgrading the energy performance of our building is multifaceted, with works on public buildings being a leading element.
For years, we have been extending and upgrading existing buildings with the newest technologies, but never before have we needed to upgrade so many buildings at once. The sheer volume of renovations we need to complete in the coming years will be a massive challenge and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has determined that this challenge needs to be approached systematically. A body of knowledge is required for how we can upgrade our buildings to ensure we can maximise the benefits while minimising the costs and time it takes to complete.
While it could be argued that we should be further along this journey, the facts are that as a nation, we are currently in a learning phase, one approach being undertaken to learn how to upgrade our many building types is through a series of publicly funded pathfinder projects. The SEAI is providing funding for capital upgrade projects using a combination of innovative and traditional techniques to improve building performances. This funding pathway was named the Energy Efficiency and Decarbonisation Pathway Programme (EEDPP). These projects are monitored throughout the design, build and operational phases to determine the optimal upgrade approach for upgrading the national building stock.
Since September 2020, the SEAI and the Higher Education Authority (HEA) have worked together to roll out a series of EEDPP in the third-level institutions across Ireland. The programme aims to couple SEAI’s extensive knowledge with Higher Education Institutes that are testing and demonstrating energy upgrade techniques. In 2023, the SEAI and HEA launched Round 3 of the EEDPP programme taking the overall funding for this programme over €100 million.
Our Project Management team led a design team on a medium retrofit with a high-temperature air source heat pump of a protected structure as part of the EEDPP programme. The project goals included reducing carbon by 50% for the operation of this project. This project was completed in 2024 and is currently in the monitoring phase. While it is too early to confirm that there has been a significant drop in carbon emissions, early anecdotal feedback is that there has been a significant improvement in the comfort levels of staff and students using the building.
Two MKO-led teams have recently secured funding to proceed to Design Stages for EEDPP projects for TUS and ATU. These projects represent two of eight EEDPP projects funded in Round 3, with a view to building scale and further developing the foundation of sustainable practices in Third Level Institutions.
As the EEDPP continues to roll out, our Project Management team remain at the forefront of managing energy retrofit projects and is happy to discuss directly with anyone aiming to upgrade their existing commercial or public buildings.