Among the topic of the day were the success story of heat pumps in Sweden and the initiative of creating a fossil free energy district introducing a local digital market place for energy. The decarbonizing of heating and cooling by a very low temperature thermal grid in combination with heat pumps and replication of innovative affordable solutions in cities through demonstration and a city network were also presented. The audience did also learn about a case where heat was recovered from the ventilation air of the London Underground by a heat pump to heat apartments and schools.
During the panel discussions the question about what needs to be done to reach the 2-degree scenario was raised. The answers from the panelists where that many of the technical solutions do already exist, we just have to implement them. For that to happen we need to collaborate more to develop integrated solutions where the advantages from different technologies are combined, implement new business models, increase the awareness of sustainable solutions and make them fancier. In addition, we need policies that promote what we want!
Key messages to the ministers
The key messages from the Arena to the ministers on the ministerial meeting was the following:
- Put heating and cooling on the agenda!
- Help us redefine the role of the utilities
- New markets for new ideas are needed
- Countries should report carbon footprint for heating and cooling and set up targets to be followed up
- Demonstration is important for replication, in order to minimize the risk when implementing new innovations
- Cross-cutting collaboration is important and necessary
- The transition to sustainable heating and cooling is too slow, we need to focus on innovations