Buildings and neighbourhoods play a key role for the energy transition as the building sector offers enormous potential to save energy and meet the remaining demand in an efficient way by using renewable energy: in Germany, residential and non-residential buildings account for about one third of total energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The Federal Government's Energy Efficiency Strategy for Buildings aims to render the building stock virtually climate-neutral by 2050 and to reduce energy demand by around 80% compared with 2008.

Research and development are making a considerable contribution to reaching these targets: they harness efficiency potentials in buildings and neighbourhoods, develop technical solutions, and do research on and test technologies in demonstration projects that are scientifically evaluated. Apart from looking at individual technologies, the focus is on connecting different innovations in a smart and efficient manner, and on speeding up the transfer of research findings from the lab to the market.

For more information about the areas in which the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is funding research and development projects, please click here.