Interview with the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, SDHp2m project partner

SDHp2m is a H2020 European Project whose name stands for Solar District Heating (SDH) and actions from Policy to Market. The project started in January 2016 and has a duration of 36 months.

This project intends to achieve a direct mobilisation of investments in SDH and, consequently, accomplish a significant market roll-out. The means to reach this goal are to develop, improve and implement advanced policies and support measures for SDH in 9 participating EU regions. Three of those regions Thuringia (DE), Styria (AT) and Rhône-Alpes (FR) have their regional regulatory authorities as project partners.

Euroheat & Power had the opportunity to interview one of the technical representatives from the Regional Council Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Mr. Alexis Pellat, about the experience of this region so far as a project partner.

Mr. Pellat, the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is the third largest metropolitan region in France and the second in terms of population with 7.8 million inhabitants. This implies a strong market potential to develop different projects. Why did Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes decide to join the SDHp2m project as a partner?

The Regional Council has adopted in 2014 a Regional Scheme on Climate, Air and Energy (SRCAE in French), which sets up targets regarding the development of renewable energy sources. For instance, for the Rhône-Alpes region the objective is to achieve a 29.6% of RES in final energy consumption by 2020. Also, the region aims at favoring the development of district heating.

Such objectives have also been confirmed by a national law (the Energetic transition law adopted in august 2015) and, especially, by the aim of increasing the part of RES in District Heating and Cooling (the share of RES in DHC has to be multiplied by 5 by 2030).

The SDHp2m project gives the Regional Council the opportunity to focus on a renewable energy source: solar thermal energy. Its development in the region (and in France in general) has been really slow for several years. Despite the fact that until 2009 the solar thermal collectors installed per year in France increased annually, since 2009 it has slowed down and it is now decreasing quickly.

The benefit of the project is also to learn from the expertise of other regions and countries and to analyse the conditions of success of solar DHC in order to implement measures at regional scale.

What outcomes do you expect the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region to have with the implementation of advanced policies and support measures for SDH?

The expected outcomes are, firstly, the mobilisation of relevant actors within the stakeholder groups (the regional stakeholder group involves many national structures such as the district heating network operator, the association Enerplan for the promotion of solar energy and AMORCE the national waste management, energy and district heating association).

Secondly, we expect a better information and acceptance of SDH projects. We also expect an evolution of regional subsidies in order to better support the solar DHC projects (in connection with local strategies and planning, especially the TEPOS territories, whose aim is to reduce energy consumption by 50% and develop RES). More than 30 territories in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes are engaged in this strategy.

Lastly, we foresee an increasing number of DHC projects including solar thermal developed in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes territories.

The SDHp2m project started eleven months ago, in January 2016. Up to now, have you already experienced any benefit from joining this European Project?

Yes, the project is a good mean to exchange and collect relevant information about the technology, the scheme to ease development and to start thinking in order to improve our plans and subsidies to facilitate the development of solar DHC projects in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

A stakeholder group (formed by associations and actors of DH and solar industries, policy makers, DH operators and planners, energy cooperatives and initiatives, city planners and heat planning experts, financing institutions, national authorities and suppliers) is currently working and identifying needs on this subject. It should allow us to propose new plans at the beginning of 2017.

Mr. Pellat, thank you very much for your time and for such detailed and informative explanations.

On behalf of Euroheat & Power, we hope that the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region will continue to invest in the successful deployment of SDH and to contribute to a greener European future.

More information about the project can be found here.

The SDHp2m project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 691624