Building Energy Act - GEG.

The Building Energy Act is promoting energy efficiency and renewable energies in Germany to achieve climate goals and ensure sustainable energy supply.The GEG aims to support the energy and climate policy goals of the federal government, increase the share of renewable energy in final energy consumption, and reduce dependence on fossil resources. The Act sets requirements for the primary energy demand, transmission heat loss, and summer heat protection of buildings. It also includes provisions for transitioning the network infrastructure to hydrogen by the year 2044. This involves defining technical and temporal steps to ensure the supply of hydrogen to consumers. The GEG emphasizes the cost-effectiveness of measures in the interest of climate protection and sustainable energy supply. It calls for a continuous reduction of fossil resources and an increase in the share of renewable energies. The Act also stipulates that building operators must carry out necessary optimization measures within one year after an operational inspection.
The Act consists of 115 Articles divided into 9 Parts and has 11 Appendixes. Part 2 of the text provides for requirements for newly constructed buildings such as principles for nearly zero energy buildings, minimum thermal insulation, thermal bridges, and summer heat protection. Part 3 provides for requirements for existing buildings including maintenance of energy quality, retrofitting of an existing building, calculation of the heat transfer coefficient, and energy assessment. Part 4 provides for systems of heating, cooling, and air conditioning as well as hot water supply, Part 5 refers to energy certificate. The text further provides for financial support, penalty provisions and various technical requirements mentioned in the Appendixes.