Indicators and Data in Spain for an Overview of Actual Energy Savings and Wider Benefits of Renovation of Buildings

The renovation of buildings brings about energy savings and various other benefits, encompassing not only reductions in energy consumption expenditure but also improvements in living conditions. Those ‘other benefits’ include quantifiable aspects derived from health savings, the use of materials that extend the life cycle of buildings, avoiding the consequences derived from energy poverty or improving the productivity of workers. This study aims to review the indicators proposed in the European Commission Recommendation (EU) 2019/786 and in the latest version of the ongoing revision of the Energy Performance of Building Directive, in order to propose a set of indicators and analyze their possibilities of being collected at national and regional levels, depending on the available data sources. The results show that while there are some data on benefits from renovation activity at both the national and regional levels that are partially available, a comprehensive and precise understanding of savings and benefits remains unavailable at this time. It is essential to emphasize the advantages of commencing a harmonization process for data collection across the European Union member states in this subject.