I‑Heros - EN

In line with the August 2015 Energy Transition Law for Green Growth (TEPCV-Lois de Transition Energétique Pour la Croissance Verte), Toulouse Metropole has specified its will to fight climate change by adopting the Territorial Climate-Air-Energy Plan (PCAET) in June 2019. By 2030, it aims at achieving the following objectives :

• Reduce the territory’s final energy consumption by 20% compared to 2016
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% compared to 2008
• Double the share of local renewable energy in the final consumption compared to 2008
• To have a global and strategic vision on the territory’s energy production and consumption, Toulouse Métropole adopted in October 2019 its “Energy Master Plan”. This planning tool breaks down the Metropolis’ objectives into operational guidelines.

The territory’s most energy-consuming sectors, which are also responsible for most GHG emissions, are transportation and buildings. In the buildings sector, the energy-efficient renovation of existing constructions has been the subject of a major political will, and the objective is to perform 7500 renovations per year, as opposed to 3000 today.

In 2016, a study was carried out to assess the annual number of energy-efficient renovations of the private housing stock in the metropolitan area. The analysis demonstrated that 3000 renovations are performed annually and suggested that if no political action is taken (“business as usual” scenario), 5500 energy-efficient renovations would take place annually by 2025.

To reach the objective of 7500 renovations, the one-stop-shop for energy-efficient renovations developed through I-HEROS should lead to an augmentation of 2000 annual renovations by proposing proactive support to households in their renovation project. It also includes support to professional enterprises of the renovation sector and the mobilization of financial partners.

The impact of the project should outreach the geographical boundaries of the Metropolitan area of Toulouse, as the entire Region Occitanie, France, but also other European countries should benefit from its experience and the developed knowledge.

The European project I-HEROS should allow to:

• Deploy a fully integrated home renovation service for private individuals in their energy-efficient renovation works (individual houses and condominiums), whatever the targeted level of energy reduction and regardless of income level. 
• Cover the entire “customer path”: neutral advice and information, technical and social diagnosis, proposition of several renovation work scenarios, mobilization of professional enterprises, attractive financial offer provisioning, follow-up of the work and its quality.
• Stimulate the demand on the territory by improving the professional offer, providing an in-depth analysis of local needs, and communicating the existence of such services to homeowners.
• Build on the experience of similar emerging services in Europe to improve the economic model of the structure and eventually allow it to operate without subsidies.     
• Use standardization to reduce renovation cost and time, as well as integrate technical solutions to promote summer comfort in housing.

Starting on the 1st September 2020, this project has three phases:

The first year corresponds to the definition of the service (structure definition, development of technical solutions, thoughts about the mobilization of professionals, determination of financial tools, etc.).
The service will be deployed in the metropolitan area in the first quarter of 2022 and aims to support 2000 additional renovations per year by the end of 2023.

Total Budget: 1 500 000€

European co-financing of 100% of the expenses, or a grant of 517 000€

The project I-HEROS is coordinated by Toulouse Metropole and brings together 7 consortium partners.

• Specialized on the topic of energy-efficient renovations, ADIL31 provides neutral and free advice on legal, fiscal, and financial aspects. Within the framework of I-HEROS, ADIL31 relies on a network of 80 ADIL to contribute to the dissemination and replication of the project on the regional and national scale.
• The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations provides its expertise in the definition of the financial strategy. Using existing financial tools, they will ensure the sustainability of the service.
• Expert in consumption monitoring, GRDF is defining a monitoring system allowing to track the ecological and energy impact of each renovation, to assess the results of the service.
• Since 2003, Toulouse Métropole has relied on the association Solagro for the management of its “Espace Info-Energie”. Its expertise will be helpful during the operational deployment of the project in the first quarter of 2022. 
• INSA de Toulouse carries out a benchmark on the different renovation techniques and uses its expertise to prioritize summer comfort of housing in renovations.
• The Agence Parisienne du Climat shares the know-how acquired through the development of the tool CoachCopro and assesses the potential for energy-efficient renovation in the metropolitan area.
• ZEBAU, the energy agency of Hamburg, contributes to the dissemination of the project’s results and its replication potential on the German territory.

Project description (European Commission)

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 890598. The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the i-Heros project and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.