Ecoheat4cities

  • Our Projects
  • June 2010 to December 2012

Ecoheat4cities developed a voluntary labelling tool for district heating and cooling (DHC) schemes to encourage communities to make green choices.

5. Ecoheat4cities

 

Duration:

June 2010 to December 2012.

 

Target Countries:

EU27.

 

Description / Objectives:

Ecoheat4cities addressed the non-technological barriers through promoting municipal and public acceptance of district heating and cooling (DHC) by establishing a voluntary green energy (heating and cooling) labelling scheme. The scheme aimed to encourage communities to make renewable energy and energy efficiency based choices, by providing them with the required information.

 

The Ecoheat4cities project had the follows specific objectives:

  • Support the implementation of the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) Directive in the context of DHC, by achieving greater acceptance of DHC systems.
  • Promote understanding and acceptance of sustainable DHC among the EU’s citizens and their local representatives and authorities.
  • Improve and establish more DHC, through monitoring and encouraging RES and energy efficiency developments in the DHC sector.
  • Trigger locally-integrated and cost-effective solutions for buildings, energy efficiency, renewable sources and infrastructure through guidance documents, training and workshops.

 

Results / Final Reports:

The Ecoheat4cities project developed a visual label, which provides a tool for better understanding the heating or cooling performances of existing (and planned) DHC systems to key stakeholders, including policy makes, municipalities, urban planners and citizens.

 

Ecoheat4cities developed a number of reports throughout the project:

 

Policy Recommendations:

The adoption and implementation of the so-called 2020 package of Directives has had positive effects on the way Member States value and promote DHC schemes. However, Directives and their national implementation partly provide contradictory signals and insufficiently reflect the need for their synergetic application at local level.

  • The methodology used within Ecoheat4cities to calculate the label offers serious possibilities to be used as standard in Energy Directives and EPBD and to therefore get a step further into harmonization of procedures and fair assessment not only of district heating but also of individual heating solutions in comparison. The fact that the method is European, but also accepts national annexes is an advantage.
  • The label and underlying method provide useful tools to ensure consistent and effective implementation of existing and future Directives.

 

Project Partners:

Euroheat & Power (BE); Delft University of Technology – TUD (NL); Danish Technological Institute- DTI (DK), AGFW (DE); Swedish District Heating Association (SE); Building Research Establishment – BRE (UK); Lithuanian Energy Institute – LEI (LT).

 

Websites:

EU projects database

 

Funding:

IEE Programme.

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