Buildings account for nearly 40 percent of EU energy consumption. It is therefore crucial that the building sector play a key role in the advocacy for, and development of, effective climate policy.

Buildings’ big data and smart technologies are swiftly and consistently improving and growing. This constitutes an unprecedented opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of the European building stock, as well as to better manage the energy consumption and life cycle of buildings.

Recognising this, the MATRYCS project is developing new decision-making and data analytics solutions for energy-efficient buildings, by combining technological breakthroughs in the areas of machine learning, deep learning and big data.

An overall MATRYCS ‘service analytics reference framework’ will be tested in 11 pilots, which are referred to by the project as LSPs (or ‘Large-Scale Pilots’). These LSPs focus on different stakeholders in the building value chain, and cover the full building life cycle, from manufacturing to operation and maintenance, while also examining cross-cutting topics relevant to all stages and stakeholders, such as policy-making and research.

ICLEI Europe in leading one of these LSPs, focused on how big data and machine learning can improve buidling-related policy making.

City-level policy mechanisms and Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) play a central role in the ICLEI-led LSP. Many local and regional authorities are engaged in sustainable energy policy and climate planning, through producing SECAPs that focus on the climate resilience of public infrastructure and services, and the reduction of energy consumption by local authorities. Municipal lighting and transport sectors, as well as municipal, tertiary and residential buildings, are key targets of these activities.

This LSP will assist cities and regions in improving their decision-making processes, by helping them with benchmarking, scenario simulations, and by providing practical policy insights, all based on data and reports the cities and regions submit to platforms like MyCovenant or the CDP/ICLEI Unified Reporting System.

In short, MATRYCS will transform processes to ensure that data is the basis for planning, development, impact assessment and monitoring of SECAPs. This, in turn, will support cities and regions to identify ideal local solutions that reinforce energy efficiency, renewable energy investments, and more.

Keen to learn more about the MATRYCS project?
Join the first MATRYCS online workshop on Tuesday, 22 June from 9:30–11:30 CEST. The workshop, moderated by Roman Mendle (ICLEI Europe), will provide an introduction to the MATRYCS approach to unlocking the potential of big data use for building energy management. It will also dive into some Large Scale Pilot examples, focusing on big data impact at the district and regional levels.

To find out more and to register, click here.