Homes: a requirement to use renewable energy when carrying out renovation work
Regulations bringing forward the ‘Green Homes’ Directive are now in force: measures such as external thermal insulation must be accompanied by photovoltaic systems and heat pumps
Key points
Requirement to meet a proportion of a building’s energy consumption using renewable energy. And, in effect, a requirement to use solutions such as heat pumps, hybrid systems or photovoltaics. This also applies to medium-scale works, which are very common in block of flats, such as the installation of external thermal insulation.
Legislative Decree 5/2026, which implements the RED III Directive on the promotion of energy from renewable sources (2023/2413) and which, in some way, anticipates the Green Homes Directive(which has not yet been implemented in Italia), has come into full effect for planning applications submitted from 3 August onwards. The text introduces requirements that could have a very significant impact: it remains to be seen how broad the scope of possible exemptions will be, on which the Ministry of the Environment will rule.
What’s new
Looking at the regulations, the previous framework imposed obligations to use systems powered by renewable sources for new buildings and those undergoing major refurbishment. These were major works: demolition and reconstruction or complete refurbishment of the building envelope for buildings with a usable floor area of over 1,000 square metres. The new decree revises Annex III of Legislative Decree 199/2021 (which transposed the previous directive), maintains the requirements for new buildings but broadens the scope of the obligations for refurbishments: these will apply to major first-level refurbishments (works affecting more than 50 per cent of the building envelope and the refurbishment of the heating system) and second-level refurbishments (works affecting more than 25 per cent of the heat-loss surface area of the building envelope) and, in addition, the refurbishment of the heating system.
The most common scenario is precisely that of a second-stage refurbishment. The refurbishment of the system, in fact, involves a substantial overhaul of the entire heating system, from production to output, including distribution. For example, the boiler, the network of water pipes and the radiators will need to be replaced. This is not a very common scenario.
The second tier, on the other hand, also includes scenarios such as the refurbishment of the building envelope. In these situations, it must be ensured that 15 per cent of the total projected energy consumption for winter and summer air conditioning is covered by renewable energy sources. Solutions such as photovoltaic systems and heat pumps or hybrid systems effectively become mandatory.
