The head of the panel of the competition “The most energy-efficient building in Latvia” is Inese Bēriņa from the Ministry of Economics. She says that the proposed buildings are assessed on five criteria.
“We value energy efficiency. Earlier this year, four experts evaluated energy-consumption savings based on documents submitted. And in the second round, two experts from Riga Technical University, the heating system – a separate criterion, sustainability and the quality of construction – are assessed,” said Bērziņa.
23 building applications have been submitted to the competition this year. 13 of them are in the multi-apartment housing category from Jelgava, Liepāja, Ventspils, Valmiera, and Valka, as well as two houses from Rīga.
Deputy Executive Director of Liepāja municipality Mārtiņš Tīdens said that 12 apartment buildings were renovated in Liepaja last year for EUR 90.5 thousand and were managed without any increase in construction costs. The renovation of the buildings allowed a significant reduction in heating costs, which grew sharply last year. Property value has also increased.
“If anyone doubts whether it should be done at all, then we look around Scandinavia, Germany, Poland – there are no multi-apartment houses that would not have been sorted out in such a way. At the moment there are the highest interest rates [..] but it must be understood that in the future it will not get cheaper. As we have 600 large houses in Liepaja and 200 of them will be warm down, there is a lot of work, 400 more houses, a lot,” said Tīdens.
The winners of the “most energy efficient building in Latvia 2023” contest will be announced on September 21.
