Challenges for public-private partnerships in improving energy efficiency of building sector

The provision of private capitals to build and operate of works bringing benefit to the community received a major boost during the la st three decades, by the spread of public private partnership schemes all over Europe. Both project financing (contractual PPP) and public-private partnerships with shared capital (PPPI) were mainly used to build infrastructures able to generate income through revenues from users, recovering by this means at least a share of the investment costs. Some changes that have occurred over the last five years make it difficult in the near future the implementation of the cooperation models used in the past. The economic and financial crisis has dramatically worsened the supply of capital necessary to complete the projects, while the needs to which the public administrations are facing are rapidly changing. Over the most tried and tested field of big infrastructure and urban facilities, new priorities are emerging, such as the refurbishment of social housing stock and the supply of new homes at affordable prices or rents for low income households, as well as the rehabilitation of public school buildings. As for environmental reasons, the achievement of high standards of energy efficiency is also an important variable for the feasibility of PPP scheme, in particular in retrofit and refurbishment of existing buildings. A reliable prediction of the achievable energy efficiency levels and their impact on operating costs of the buildings affects the structuring of public private partnership, and in some cases it may represent a main driver of its economic and financial sustainability. In this context, significant benefits can be derived from the use of several tools - mandatory, incentive, voluntary – made available to support energy efficiency by different levels of regulations - European, national, local. This paper investigates innovative business models for energy retrofitting actions and several available tools to subsidize their adoption. The paper comprises a case study selection, based on a detailed analysis of eco-innovations collected in Italy, and a focus on a significant case.