The Building Energy Rehabilitation Programme (PREE) promoted by the National Government seeks to renovate buildings and dwellings as a means to reduce energy consumption and reduce polluting emissions (CO2 and NOX) generated by dwellings, which in Europe are up to 4 times more polluting than car emissions.
With this programme, the Spanish government seeks to invest European aid funds to overcome the economic crisis generated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The main objective of the housing renovation programme in Spain is to achieve the highest possible number of decarbonised buildings, i.e. with zero emissions by 2050, by improving the energy efficiency of buildings in order to reduce their current energy consumption.
The difficulty lies in the fact that many of these buildings are quite old and therefore require major renovations to achieve optimal energy efficiency. However, to achieve the goal it is necessary to refurbish them, which is expected to:
- Boost the sustainability of the real estate sector.
- Minimise energy consumption, in order to make existing buildings energy-efficient by favouring the use of renewable energies.
The aid of the housing renovation programme in Spain is aimed at:
- Improving exterior facades and envelopes in order to achieve a reduction of the interior energy demand in dwellings.
- Replacing cooling and heating equipment with more efficient equipment using renewable energies such as solar, thermal or biomass.
- Promote the use of photovoltaic systems to generate electricity for self-consumption.
How to manage the PREE subsidies
The housing stock in Spain is very old, it is estimated that around 66% is more than 50 years old, which means that they tend not to be energy efficient, so a high percentage of these buildings need reforms and structural changes to improve their energy efficiency.
The government encourages owners to spend the resources of the PREE, which can be used for the energy refurbishment of existing buildings, regardless of their age and type of use. The programme covers all autonomous communities and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
It is important to consider that the subsidies of the housing refurbishment programme in Spain are distributed according to the housing stock of each Autonomous Community and the regional governments are responsible for managing them.
