HELENA project
In the EU-funded HELENA project, we are looking for the most cost-efficient ways to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and promote the use of renewable energy in Heka
The project aims to reduce the energy consumption of Heka’s major renovation projects by approximately 40% through site-specific multi-target optimisation. Optimisation will be carried out for at least 170 residential buildings during the project.
Currently more than half of Helsinki’s carbon dioxide emissions is caused by heating buildings. The city’s own building stock is subject to very strict and binding energy efficiency requirements for both new and renovation construction. Our goal is to achieve carbon neutrality in the energy use of our building stock by 2030.
The energy consumption of buildings is a combination of many variables, and a conventional analysis of a few options may not necessarily find the best and most cost-efficient solutions to improve energy efficiency. Multi-target optimisation simultaneously compares up to millions of solutions suitable for the project in an effort to understand the big picture and the effect of different variables on each other. Of the various combinations, the best overall solution in terms of life-cycle costs and energy efficiency is selected for each building to be renovated.
Multi-target optimisation allows investments to be targeted towards the most cost-efficient measures that promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. The results of the multi-target optimisations will be collected in a public database to be published in summer 2024. The aim of the database is to provide those considering energy renovation with information on the most profitable energy efficiency measures for properties of different age and type. The aim is to also promote energy renovation outside Heka.
Project’s basic details
- Duration: 1 October 2020 – 30 September 2024
- Budget: EUR 2,034,000. The HELENA project will be implemented mainly with ELENA funding, a grant scheme managed by the European Investment Bank and funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme.
- For more information, please contact Kirsi Korpisalo, Energy Expert, kirsi.korpisalo@hekaoy.fi, tel. +458 9 5767 4012.
Read the final summary of and lessons learned from Heka’s HELENA project
