Commissioned by Glass for Europe, a TNO study finds that nearly 30% of Europe’s building energy consumption for heating and cooling could be saved in 2030 if all buildings were equipped with high performance glazing. The TNO study is a quantification of both energy and CO2 savings that can be realised for heating and cooling of buildings thanks to high performance glazing across the 28 EU Member States in both horizons 2030 and 2050. In addition to full potentials, whereby all windows are equipped with high performance glazing across all EU buildings, it also simulates the impacts of several window replacement rates, all compared to a baseline scenario.

To Glass for Europe, it is striking to note that almost half of the energy savings could be realised in as little as 10 years should the renovation rate of windows be doubled, ie from 2% to 4% annually and that newly installed windows be equipped with high performance glazing.

“This study is an update of studies realised by TNO on the same topic a decade ago” explains Leo Bakker, author of the study and façade expert at TNO. “It incorporates fresh data, for example, on Europe’s building stock and its performance and on the decarbonisation of the energy mix. But its main novelty is that it quantifies savings induced by increased window replacement rates. This allows to identify the potential in window retrofitting when equipped with high performance glazing, whose properties were provided by Glass for Europe’s experts.”