A new approach for national-scale Building Energy Models based on Energy Performance Certificates in European countries: The case of Spain

Urban Building Energy Models (UBEMs) are useful instruments to know the energy consumption of building stocks at urban and national levels. UBEMs can be classified into different types and subtypes. The current detailed physics-based bottom-up UBEMs at a national scale play a crucial role in assessing the energy efficiency of national building stocks and defining improvement strategies. These models heavily rely on archetypes and energy simulations, demanding significant computational resources. We propose here a new type of national-scale detailed physics-based UBEM based on Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), and other open big data, which has the advantage that it can be automatically updated, in a short time, and with standard computer means. In this paper, we define the methodology to build this new type of national-scale EPC-based UBEM. We have checked that the model for the case of Spain can be automatically generated and updated in less than 6 h with a standard computer, and it generates results that match official data in more than 98 % for four indicators. The generated model contains information about 10,939,801 buildings in Spain, out of which 1,202,708 have EPCs. The model allows us to map and analyse the buildings in the country by integrating multiple variables of different nature, such as geographical (Autonomous Community, municipality, type of municipality), physical (area, number of floors, date of construction), use-related (main use of the building and use of each of its building units), and energy-related (climate zone, energy class, energy consumption, CO₂ emissions). In this paper, we have proven that the model allows for the development of some indicators to measure the progress of decarbonisation trajectories whose development will become mandatory for European Member States soon.