Energy efficiency (EE) in residential buildings has to date only received limited attention in India despite the exponential growth of residential housing for middle income families and the accompanying increase in energy demand in recent years.
Therefore, in 2010, the German development bank KfW, under the auspices of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), initiated a program to foster the energy efficiency in new residential buildings in India.
The program focused on two main measures: firstly, the German Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics and “The Energy and Resource Institute” (TERI) in New Delhi developed an IT-tool which calculates the energy demand of residential buildings and potential savings against a baseline which represents the current standard building design in India.
Secondly, KfW extended a credit line of EUR 50 million to the National Housing Bank (NHB) of India for on-lending to commercial banks and specialized housing finance institutions which provide loans for energy efficient homes.
The program has been very successful – in only one year, the entire credit line was disbursed and almost 2,000 loans were given to buyers of energy efficient apartments in 12 new residential building complexes. As part of the final program evaluation, MACS was contracted by KfW to implement the following final audits:
The final program audit demonstrated a successful project implementation and proper allocation of the funds overall but also revealed some limitations in regards to the implemented approach. KfW will take these aspects into account when considering future EE projects in the residential housing sector in India.
Holger is Energy and Process Engineer and the Head of our Energy Department. He holds an engineering degree from the Berlin Technical University and has about 20 years of experience in the evaluation, design and management of energy projects, including energy service companies (ESCO).
At MACS, Holger plays a key role in developing and steering the company’s activities in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE/EE). As a chief engineer, project manager and deputy project manager, he has led several expert teams during the implementation of RE/EE credit lines in Southeast Europe. Currently his focus is on the technical operations lead in the MACS role of the Technical Advisor of the GGF (Green for Growth Fund). Moreover, he has carried out market studies for RE/EE in countries like Turkey and Mozambique.
Driven by the vision of sustainable solutions of RE and EE measures counteracting climate change and the carefree depletion of natural resources, he has been key for the development of our standardized validation approach for energy savings and CO2 emission reductions (eSave).
Heading the Energy Department, he is also representing the company in our relations with clients and partners.