New generation Energy Performance Certificate: development and application in an Italian case study as an EU proof of concept

The latest Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) recast, adopted on March 2023, focuses on the revision of the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) (art. 16) with the introduction of new indicators to boost the EPC implementation and use as a clearer, more reliable, and easy-to-understand tool in line with the Green Deal’s climate neutrality goals, providing a dedicated template in the Annex V. In this context, the H2020 Energy Performance Certificate Recast (EPC RECAST) project aims to develop a process for the implementation and validation of such a new generation of EPC, with a focus on existing residential buildings. The paper presents the state of progress of the EPC RECAST testing methodology, comparing its research procedure with the standard national ones, cur-rently in use in the different project countries to validate the approach regarding reliability and user-friendliness. The core of the paper is the presentation of the research methodology, specifying each step of the testing approach for assessing the new generation of EPC to highlight the challenges and potentialities of the procedure, coupled with its application in an Italian case study as a Proof of Concept (PoC). The work highlights on the one hand the applicability and user-friendly method developed by the project for the new generation EPCs in line with the EPBD and on the other hand the limits and potentialities of EPC improvement as a key tool towards the decarbonization of the building sector.