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Overview
European Stategic Energy
Technology Plan (SET Plan)
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Renewable Energy Sectors
Solar Heating and Cooling|Objectives-Technology |Dissemination-Successful Projects |Presentations-Publications Heating and cooling from renewable energy sourcesTechnical assistance on the standards and codes applied to
heating and cooling from renewable energies sector Heating and cooling from renewable energies: costs
of national policies and administrative barriers Renewable energy in the "heating and cooling" sector is a more diverse, complex and complicated sector than electricity or transport. The sources of fuel and transformation technologies are more varied, the market far more fragmented and in some cases, the technologies less mature. The energy sources covered include solar thermal, biomass (in particular pellets and woodchips), geothermal (including heat pumps) and (the biodegradable part of) municipal waste. Whilst renewable heating constitutes the largest sector in terms of absolute quantities of energy, its growth rates are low, its efficiency levels are dubious (given that the sector is dominated by household use of biomass) and the decentralised nature of much of the energy has put it at an historical disadvantage compared with the highly centralised electricity and transport sectors. The graphs below illustrate the widely differing practices across Member States. The range is great, showing that actual practice is far more variable than resource availability. National trends vary widely, at times without much rhyme or reason. For instance, several factors determine the uptake of solar heating systems (support, climate, cultural attitudes, and market structure). But for each factor, there is no consistent trend. A hot climate clearly improves the efficiency of solar thermal heating, and thus improves its cost effectiveness and lowers unit costs. Yet practice in countries of similar climates varies widely.
Source: Eurostat (Member States not shown have zero or near zero shares) In addition to the industry forecasts of growth potential and the relatively modest ambition of the target growth rates, the simple fact of such wide variation suggests that there is significant scope for learning from other Member States and improving the growth across Europe. It is for this reason that the forthcoming directive on renewable energy will include several measures to improve the situation of renewable energy for heating and cooling. Tackling administrative barriers, reducing planning and other administrative costs, and informing consumers of the real benefits available from renewably sourced heating and cooling systems are just some of the ideas that will be developed in the proposal.
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