1st Plenary Meeting, 17th-18th November 2021, Online
Session 4: The role of the comprehensive assessment in stimulating renewable heating and cooling
As part of the EED and the RED all member states had to make a comprehensive assessment (CA) for heating and cooling, including renewable heating and cooling and waste heat. The CA includes the current status and the potential. Currently 21 members states (and the UK) have submitted their CA. The JRC will evaluate the CA’s. Next year (around May) the commission expects to give feedback to the members states. In the session Eva Hoos (DG ENER) gave an overview of the objective for the CA and the state of play and the JRC gave the first appraisal of the submitted CA’s. Stane Merse presented the results of the session on the CA from the CA-EED followed by a presentation about the CA from Norway and the results of the questionnaires. In the group work the participants had the chance to exchange their experience with the CA’s.
Some main results:
- The CA has stimulated countries to improve their data for (renewable) heating and cooling.
- Data for cooling and waste heat were generally poor and hard to get
- The CA is useful for developing new policies and measures
- It would be better to combine the making of the CA with the NECP.
- The situation differs a lot between countries, therefore the given format was sometimes hard to use.
Session 9: Renewable cooling
The goal of the session was to gain awareness and knowledge of the current state of play on renewable cooling from the regulatory side.
Participants discussed the results of the questionnaire, regarding, among others, the criteria to define renewable cooling, including criteria on energy efficiency and data availability and measures to support renewable cooling.
The results of the study “Renewable Cooling under the Revised Renewable Energy Directive ENER/C1/2018-493” were presented. The study quantified final energy consumption for cooling in EU Member States. Furthermore, it develops projections on final energy consumption for cooling until 2030 as well as 2050. The study investigated the role of RES in cooling, analysed what can be considered as renewable cooling, and suggested definitions of renewable cooling in the context of the RED II. It also assessed the impact of different RES-Cooling definition options on RES and RES H&C shares in 2030 and 2050 and the associated economic impacts.
Participants also discussed the delegated act establishing a methodology for calculating the quantity of renewable cooling and district cooling that can be counted towards EU renewable energy targets under the Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001. The methodology aims at ensuring that renewable energy used in cooling is calculated in the same way by each Member State and monitoring, reporting and verification is possible. The Delegated Act includes active cooling systems (building design, ventilation and comfort fans are excluded). Cooling in transportation, refrigeration and cooling applied to mitigate heat from high temperature energy generation processes are excluded. According to the methodology used in the delegated act, renewable cooling must be defined via the criterion of minimum seasonal performance factors (SPF). Only cooling systems operating above the minimum efficiency requirement expressed as primary Seasonal Performance Factor (SPFp) are considered to produce renewable energy. Participants discussed how to interpret the definitions and their implications for their calculations of renewable cooling shares.
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2nd Plenary Meeting, 18th-19th May 2022, Online
Session 3: Status of the implementation of the minimum level for renewable energy in major renovation of buildings (RED art. 15.4)
As of the first of July 2021 Member States should have implemented the Renewable Energy Directive II in their national regulations. In article 15, some requirements are set for the building sector. In particular, article 15.4 requires:
“Member States shall, in their building regulations and codes or by other means with equivalent effect, require the use of minimum levels of energy from renewable sources in new buildings and in existing buildings that are subject to major renovation in so far as technically, functionally and economically feasible, and reflecting the results of the cost-optimal calculation carried out pursuant to Article 5(2) of Directive 2010/31/EU, and in so far as this does not negatively affect indoor air quality. Member States shall permit those minimum levels to be fulfilled, inter alia, through efficient district heating and cooling using a significant share of renewable energy and waste heat and cold.”
The goal of the session was to get an overview of the way in which member states have implemented article 15.4 in their building codes, and the main outcomes coming from the discussions of the participants were:
- Most countries (78% of respondents) have implemented the minimum requirement for the level for renewable energy in new buildings, and most of them for major renovations. The required level varies a lot between Member States.
- In most Members States a connection to district heating also is seen as fulfilling the requirement, but there is a difference in the demands for the efficiency or number of renewables in district heating.
- In the Netherlands the minimum level of renewable energy for major renovations is related to the roof area, as most customers use PV-panels to fulfill the requirement.
- Multi-family buildings were seen as an issue by several countries, because of available space for solar energy and issues on self-consumption and division of energy.
Session 13: Renewable heating and cooling in the industrial sector
Mainstreaming renewable energy in heating and cooling is the topic of the article 23 of the directive. In particular, article 23.4 makes express reference to the use of renewables in the industrial sector, when mentioning possible measures to reach the objectives.
The goal of the session was to acquire knowledge of current state of play on renewable H&C in the industrial sector, and the different options and experiences by Member states on how to decarbonize the industrial sector, both from the regulatory and the incentives perspectives.
Participants from the European Commission started by setting the general framework and showing the opportunities brought by REPowerEU to decarbonize the industrial sector, with reinforced targets of using renewable fuels of non-biological origin.
Participants discussed the results of the questionnaire, regarding, among others, current and foreseen in 2030 shares of RES consumption in the industrial sector, regulatory and financial measures in place and potential barriers that could prevent the deployment of renewable energies in the industrial sector.
Experiences on financial measures in place were presented by Germany and Spain. These measures have been running for a couple of years now, and so far, has been most successful in implementing bioenergy projects, although other technologies (solar, heat pumps) have also been developed.
The European Heat Pump Association also made a presentation on the specific potential for heat pumps to deliver and be used in different industrial sectors.
All the participants considered that it is a good time for industry to replace fossil fuels by renewable energies, and most of the participants indicated that the estimated payback time expected from industrial managers for these kind of investments is 3-5 years. Most participants also thought that energy services companies can play a relevant role (instead of the industrial making the investment directly by himself) and, when asked about what specific measures Member States could take, most of the answers targeted the financial side of the problem (e.g., tax exemptions, financing support, attractive funding schemes).
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3rd Plenary Meerin, 09th-10th November 2022, Athens, Greece
Session 3: Statistics for waste heat
According to the Renewable energy directive (RED), waste heat can be included for the target for renewable H&C of article 23. Up to now, there are no data for waste heat in the energy statistics and there is little information on the actual use of waste heat. To improve it the session focused on the following issues:
- Current statistics on waste heat.
- Possibilities to improve these statistics.
- Implementation of the definition of waste heat.
- Examples of projects where waste heat is used.
The main outcomes from the questionnaire and the session were:
- For many countries waste heat is not important in their energy balance.
- Very few countries have data on the amount of waste heat.
- If data are available, it is about the supply of waste heat to district heating.
- The definition is implemented in about half of the member states.
- The opportunities for using waste heat from datacenters are mentioned by many countries.
- Waste heat contributes little towards the RES H&C-targets.
- Big efforts are needed to increase use of waste heat. Projects with waste heat are difficult to develop, because there is no stakeholder that takes the lead.
Session 13: The role of renewable H&C to reduce the need for natural gas in the building sector
The need for greater use of renewable heating and cooling is becoming more urgent with the current energy crises and exploding price of fossil fuels. The RE-power EU proposal aims at increasing the application of renewable energy technologies. In this session, we focused on the possibilities to increase the take up of renewable H&C technologies in the building sector and some examples of policies, including extraordinary measures and contingency plans developed by Member States to tackle the current crisis. Particular attention was given to better understand:
- Rationale behind choosing natural gas as fuel for heating.
- Obstacles to install renewable H&C technologies, with a particular focus on heat pumps.
- Policies/grants to promote the substitution of natural gas by renewable sources of energy.
- Energy poverty and sectoral integration-related issues.
Main conclusions were that the main incentives for industry and individuals are funding and regulation. Regarding funding, Slovakia works with a voucher system for listed qualified installers. They can get the voucher after installing the measure. Slovakia is willing to present the system on a coming CA-Res session if it fits the topic.
Regarding regulation, there is a trend already seen in different Member states to set more obligations (for example obligation to connect to district heating).
As a crosscutting issue, the worry about the availability of qualified installers and potential issues with the break of the value chain was mentioned by several Member states.
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