A new Italian Competence Centre for Heat Pumps will serve as a hub to spread the technological culture of electric heat pumps, offering training, regulatory support and information to professionals and users. Promoted by the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) and EURAC Research together with Assoclima, AICARR and Centro Studi Galileo, it will be national reference point for professionals, researchers and policy-makers.
Heat pump technologies are unanimously recognized as a key driver for decarbonization in the heating and cooling sector—from residential and commercial air conditioning to some process and industrial applications. This was the focus of a two-day immersion workshop at the ENEA office in Pisa. During the meeting, participants discussed technical issues and the tools needed to accelerate the deployment of these technologies, as advocated by European and national guidelines for the energy transition.
This discussion led to the decision to establish a National Competence Centre for electric heat pumps, with the aim of disseminating technological knowledge. The Centre’s ambition is to serve as a national reference point for various professionals, who will find there an “entry point” for orientation, and to potentially act as a point of contact with key institutional bodies and policy-makers.
Within this framework, the Competence Centre will act as a hub for initiatives to disseminate technological culture, from designing training courses for designers and installers to systematizing current regulations and incentive systems for technology at the national and regional levels. This includes, of course, the end user, whom communication channels and initial knowledge will be activated to enable a more informed choice of the air conditioning system best suited to their needs and requirements.
The scope of action will also include development, monitoring, and ongoing training initiatives on technical and regulatory issues that are considered strategic for the future of technology.
On the sidelines of the event, Maurizio Pieve emphasized that the atmosphere established during the two-day meeting bodes well for organic collaboration among the stakeholders:
“We see excellent potential for synergy among the Center’s various stakeholders; as ENEA, we hope that the planned program of activities will effectively integrate such authoritative expertise, building a collaborative approach aimed at the wider dissemination of efficient and eco-sustainable air conditioning technology.”
The meeting was attended by leading associations and organizations in the electric heat pump industry: Assoclima, with speakers including Federico Musazzi, Secretary General, Marco Dall’Ombra, Group Leader of the Heat Pumps Group, and Mariano Covolo, Chairman of the Technical Committee; AICARR, with Claudio Zilio, President, and Mariapia Colella, Director of AICARR Educational; Centro Studi Galileo, with Marco Buoni, CEO, and Simone Portalupi, teacher and trainer; EURAC Research, with Roberto Fedrizzi, Coordinator of the Sustainable Air Conditioning Systems Research Group, and Diego Menegon, Team Leader for the Experimental Development of HVAC Systems; and ENEA, which hosted the event, with the Italian HPT TCP ExCo Delegates Maurizio Pieve and Raniero Trinchieri, and the support of Dario Urbano, ENEA researcher, who are involved in research programs on sustainable heat pump air conditioning.
