Heating and Cooling
Heating and Cooling finally arrived at the centre of the EU energy agenda with the publication of the Heating and Cooling Strategy in February 2016.
The Strategy is part of the Energy Security package released by the European Commission within the Energy Union implementation. It comes after many years of constructive dialogue with the European institutions and constitutes an indisputable recognition of the role the heating and cooling sector plays in the transition to a sustainable energy future.
The overall vision is the decarbonisation of European buildings based on energy efficiency, the shift to renewable energy and the synergies between heating and cooling and the electricity system through means of efficient district heating.
Specifically, the Strategy recognises the key part that district heating, based on waste heat recovery, cogeneration and integration of renewable energy, can play in fostering energy security and the decarbonisation of European buildings.
- Decarbonisation “entails renovating the existing building stock, along with intensified efforts in energy efficiency and renewable energy, supported by decarbonized electricity and district heating”.
- “District heating can integrate renewable electricity, geothermal and solar thermal energy, waste heat and municipal waste. It can offer flexibility to the energy system by cheaply storing thermal energy”.
- The strategy acknowledges the economic potential of combined heat and power and its advantages: “significant energy and CO2 savings”; “using renewable energy, alternative fuels and waste heat”.
- With the revisions of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, Energy Efficiency Directive and Renewable Energy Sources Directive, the EC intends to promote “renewable energy through a comprehensive approach to speed up the replacement of obsolete fossil fuel boilers with efficient renewable heating and increasing the deployment of renewable energy in district heating and CHP”.
Euroheat & Power welcomed the publication of the Strategy as a first step in establishing the sustainable heating and cooling model that Europe and its citizens require. The years to come will see the challenge of translating its principle into practice through ambitious and well-crafted regulatory measures.
Furthermore, on 13 September 2016, the European Parliament adopted in Plenary its resolution on the EU Strategy for Heating and Cooling. Euroheat & Power warmly welcomed the document which broadly recognises the huge untapped potential of using recoverable heat and district heating systems and the fact that “50% of the total EU heat demand can be supplied via district heating”.