Energy requirements in Ireland

In October of 2005, the Council of Fingal County, Ireland, adopted sustainable building requirements which must be met in order to obtain building permits.

They require that the total energy requirements of the buildings not exceed 50 khw/ m2 per annum (a square meter is 10.76 square feet). Another stipulation is that a minimum of 30% of the building's energy comes from renewable sources.

The average energy use for a building in Ireland at the time the standards were adopted were twice the newly adopted levels. However some builders in the region already are achieving energy consumption rates below 15 kwh/ m2 of usable space.

The Fingal standards are already being adopted by other counties in Ireland, and come in advance of an EU-wide adoption of similar guidelines.

http://www.constructireland.ie/articles/0212fingal.php
Fingal County is adjacent to the city of Dublin and is described in Wikipedia as the fastest growing region in the nation.