Europe is calling for green homes by 2035. In Trentino there are 10 thousand of them, but 21 thousand homes need to be redeveloped

The energy requalification works of buildings supported by the 110% Superbonus, now drastically reduced in the extent and methods of the subsidy, involved over 9,200 properties in Trentino, of which almost 9,000 with construction sites completed. The total value of investments eligible for deduction, as of March 2024, is equal to 2 billion 300 million euros. The interventions carried out – external insulation, heat pumps, photovoltaic systems and much more – lead to energy savings of approximately 400 million kilowatt hours per year. To this must be added the energy saving interventions financed for more than ten years now with the ecobonus of 50 and 65%, and even more in the case of condominiums: in the province of Trento we are talking about over 500 million in total investments and 300 millions of kilowatt hours of annual savings. In total, the interventions on green homes in Trentino concern over 10 thousand buildings, are worth 2.8 billion and lead to savings of 700 million kilowatt hours, more than 10% of annual energy consumption. But how much are we in line with the new green homes directive just launched by the Council of the European Union? The directive, the result of a compromise compared to the first versions, aims to progressively reduce the climate-altering carbon dioxide emissions of the European building stock and to achieve the objective of total decarbonisation by 2050. In practice, the energy consumption of residential it must be reduced by 16% by 2030 and by 20-22% by 2035. To achieve this result, at least 43% of the worst performing properties must be renovated. In Trentino, according to the latest data published by Odatech, the energy certification body, updated to the first quarter of this year, class E, F and G buildings, i.e. the most energy-intensive properties, make up 39.8% of the total, down compared to 2021 when they were over 40% (Il T of 20 February). The buildings with the highest energy consumption are less than 50 thousand from almost 52 thousand three years ago: 2,000 less, while the greenest ones in classes A and B are increasing. Of the buildings with the worst performance, the directive calls for 21 thousand to be redeveloped in ten years . Reducing energy consumption by 20-22% means spending around 5 billion. Except that to maintain the pace of 2,000 buildings redeveloped every year, important incentives such as building ecobonuses would be needed. Which instead are in the process of being drastically downsized.
The ecobonus accounts
As of March 31st of this year, the buildings in Trentino on which interventions financed by the Superbonus have been completed or are underway are approximately 9,200, of which 4,800 condominiums, more than 3,000 single-family buildings and over 1,200 functionally independent real estate units. As always, investments by condominiums are the largest share, approximately 80% equal to 1.8 billion out of 2.3. Among the main interventions, those on the casing such as the so-called coat, green systems, especially condensing boilers and heat pumps, solar collectors, photovoltaic systems, storage systems. As regards energy saving bonuses, which have been active for many more years, the total investments in Trentino exceed 510 million. With these interventions, many houses, at least ten thousand, have changed their energy class. The energy classes range from A to G in decreasing order of sustainability. Classes A and B are considered green, classes C and D still have sustainable consumption but at the limit, classes E, F and G are those with the worst energy performance. Naturally, not all interventions concerned buildings of the worst classes, there were also many class changes between the higher levels.
More sustainable buildings
Certainly in recent years, class A and B properties in Trentino have increased significantly. Between 2020 and 2021, class A, A+, B and B+ energy certifications issued by the competent bodies were 13% of the total. In 2022 they rose to 17% and in 2023 to 22%. Now more than a fifth of new certifications concern low energy consumption buildings. Conversely, the share of certifications from the worst classes drops, but not enough, because the energy requalification interventions often concern properties in the middle classes: in the case of the Superbonus it was explicitly requested that the interventions lead to an improvement in two energy classes, often from C and from D to A and B. According to the data collected by Odatech, from 2010 to today the total of certifications in Trentino is distributed in this way: 14% are class A and B, just over 46% are class C and D and less than 40% of class E, F and G. The bulk of the certifications continues to concern residential, but there is also a non-residential share.