Dublin’s energy agency Codema has announced that it will lead a €1.2 million project to test and develop a one-stop-shop project implementation unit for energy-efficient and renewable energy projects in Dublin, which will include more than €20 million worth of upgrades to council buildings and sites within the region.  

The DeliveREE project, which will be funded through the EU Horizon 2020 programme, will support the retrofit of a range of council facilities such as leisure centres, fire stations, theatres, libraries, offices, community buildings and landfill treatment sites.

Reduction in carbon emissions by almost 4,000 tonnes

This pipeline of projects will be completed over the next four years and is expected to reduce carbon emissions in Dublin by almost 4,000 tonnes.

Unlike existing 'one-stop-shops' which typically concentrate on the residential sector, DeliveREE focuses on solutions to retrofitting large commercial and public buildings, which have a big impact on emissions in towns and cities like Dublin but are often overlooked.

A key part of the project will involve creating an innovative, standardised finance and delivery system for rolling out energy-efficiency and renewable energy projects at mass scale in Dublin.

This will work by processing and assessing potential projects quickly and efficiently, in order to identify the most suitable buildings to upgrade. Once identified, these buildings of various types and sizes will be bundled together to gain large-scale impact on the efficiency of Dublin’s building stock. 

The retrofit work will then be carried out using energy performance-based contracts, which will ensure long-term, guaranteed energy savings and will make the project more financially attractive to the client, the contractor and to private investors. 

CEO of Codema, Donna Gartland, said: “Public buildings need to achieve a Building Energy Rating of ‘B’ by 2030, so the main challenge lies in how this can be achieved at the scale and speed required.

Mainstreaming sustainable energy investments

"The DeliveREE project directly responds to this challenge by testing and developing a much-needed, long-term solution for mainstreaming sustainable energy investments.

"By creating this Project Implementation Unit, not only can we develop energy projects quickly and efficiently, we can also find attractive, large-scale, de-risked projects for investors, while establishing a professional marketplace for Energy Service Companies to tender for contracts.”

The DeliveREE project officially kicks off this week and, in addition to Codema as lead partner, the consortium includes the four Dublin local authorities, alongside a range of legal, procurement and financial experts such as Resourceful Futures Ltd, Philip Lee Solicitors Ltd and Sustainable Development Capital LLC. 

The project will also be supported by a strategic advisory board made up of national government departments and authorities, financial institutes and advisors, experienced energy agencies and European experts.