HRE4

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Project Period

03/2016 – 02/2019

Objective

Heat Roadmap Europe (HRE): Building the knowledge, skills, and capacity required to enable new policies and encourage new investments in the heating and cooling sector.

Brochure: The Legacy of Heat Roadmap Europe 4

In Europe, there is a clear long-term objective to decarbonize the energy system, but it is, however, unclear how this will be achieved in the heating and cooling sector. As a result, there is currently uncertainty among policymakers and investors in the heating and cooling sector, primarily due to a lack of knowledge about the long-term changes that will occur in the coming decades. The work of this (fourth) HRE project builds on three previous HRE studies, all of which have already influenced high-level policymakers at EU and national levels in Europe.

One of the most significant improvements compared to previous studies is the dissemination and communication strategy that has been developed as part of this proposal. These activities represent the largest work package in this proposal, which is necessary in order to ensure that policymakers, investors, and researchers at local, national, and EU levels are all see aware of the new data, tools, methodologies, and results from this project.

Results and perspectives

In general, the project shows how substantial CO2 savings can be achieved by using a suitable mix of three pillars: energy savings, efficient low-carbon energy supply and thermal networks – and not only has it been quantified how this can be done in the Heat Roadmaps (scenarios) but also where by means of the Pan-European Thermal Atlas, “Peta” (more info below).

The findings of HRE4 proves that a common and coordinated effort of all citizens for the transition to a low-carbon future in accordance with the Paris Agreement is not only possible, but cost-effective and affordable with existing technologies available on the market today. Therefore, it would be an ethical, political and organisational failure, if the nations as well as regional and local governments together won’t be able to ensure the required changes.

Key PlanEnergi activities

PlanEnergi has developed Guidelines for the Energy System Transition targeting policymakers at various levels:

Besides this, PlanEnergi have gathered business cases and strategies to show how recommended solutions can be implemented in practice. These are gathered in the report “Business cases and business strategies to encourage market uptake”.

PlanEnergi has also contributed with inputs for the energy system modelling and for the solar district heating layer in Peta. In this free tool, it is possible to identify heating demand densities and various heat sources (e.g. excess heat from industries) as well as estimates of the cost of establishing district heating across Europe. In the map it is possible to zoom in on your local area to identify possibilities in your own region. The map is available online at heatroadmap.eu/peta.