Fact-finding mission on energy-efficient building for experts and multipliers from Japan
What does energy-efficient building look like in practice? What successes have been achieved in Germany? What possibilities are there for using renewable energies in buildings? Answers to these questions were provided to 16 Japanese decision-makers and multipliers in autumn 2012.
For five days, they travelled through Germany to find out about the theory and practice of energy-efficient construction - and to take away ideas for implementation in their own country. The event was organised by ECOS as part of the Export Initiative Energy Efficiency of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).
One year after the earthquake and the subsequent nuclear disaster of 2011 in Fukushima, the topic was highly topical: How can energy be used even more efficiently in Japan and how can energy be saved? The participants received basic information on the legal framework and the development of energy standards in the building sector at the Prefabricated House World Cologne. Here, three entrepreneurs also explained insulation with renewable raw materials, façade and window sealing and environmentally friendly and efficient heating with pellet stoves.
Speakers from the Passive House Institute and the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics explained details of insulation, ventilation and indoor climate as well as building energy standards in Germany. This was followed by a visit to model examples of future-oriented energy-efficient building: The participants visited prefabricated houses, passive house settlements and buildings in Stuttgart, Crailsheim and Heidelberg as well as the award-winning "Solar Decathlon" house in Frankfurt.
The information trip was a win-win situation for both sides: The Japanese participants gained a comprehensive insight into the state of the art of energy-efficient construction and the policy for promoting renewable energies in Germany. The German research institutions and companies, in turn, positioned themselves as know-how and technology partners - and were given contacts in a lucrative but also demanding growth market.
