The German Energy Agency-dena (Deutsche Energie-Agentur) has launched the new project: “Check-in Energy Efficiency: A dena Pilot Project for Energy Optimisation in Hotels & Accommodation” with the aim to reduce the energy consumption of hotel buildings while increasing the comfort levels of hotel guests. The pilot project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and supported by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Construction and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).

An appointed expert jury evaluated the applications and selected 11 hostels and 29 hotels all over Germany to participate in the project and benefit from particularly attractive subsidies for energy consultation and implementation of energy efficiency measures. The refurbishment approaches developed as part of the project are to serve as role models, to ensure that the refurbishment successes are transferable.

The project is scheduled to run for three years, 2014-2017. The first step is the development of a refurbishment roadmap by an experienced and qualified energy efficiency expert. The owners then will begin implementing one or more of the recommended measures with the aim to reach final energy savings of at least 30 or 50 percent, depending on the energy condition of the building before refurbishment. The planned energy efficiency measures range from optimising existing technology and user behaviour to improving the building envelope.

Huong Truong