The event was the concluding event of a project funded by the Technical Support Instrument of the European Commission and implemented by the International Energy Agency in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM), to provide multi-country advice on concrete measures to reduce dependency on Russian fossil fuels. This included a series of prior workshops and analytical outputs across seven key areas:
- Energy efficiency improvements
- Rooftop solar and heat pumps
- Faster permitting of renewable energy
- Innovative renewables and hydrogen solutions for industry
- Diversification of gas supply
- Biomethane
- Hydrogen
The Executive Director of IEA, Fatih Birol, was one of high-level speakers in the introduction of the workshop. He started by congratulate EU and the EU and member states! He said that the country that invaded Ukraine in February 2022 was the “top one” energy exporter in the world. Therefore, this war and the following necessary sanctions created the first real energy crisis and Europe is in the epicenter. One year later IEA figures shows that Russia’s oil and gas revenue has gone down by 38%, the share of Russian gas in EU gas demand has gone down 40%, energy from renewables (solar and wind) has gone up by 41% and EU heat pumps sales have increased by almost +40%. Last but not least, emissions went down by 2,5% during 2022. Shortly after invasion, in March, IEA published a 10-point plan to reduce the reliance of Russian fossil fuels and a week later the European Commission published REPowerEU where they followed the advice from IEA.
However, he also sent a warning to the Commission and the EU members states. “We are off the hook for this winter, but some governments show overconfidence for next winter”. He explained that there are three reasons why next winter could be even more challenging than the present one. There is still some gas from Russia, 30 bcm, which EU can lose any time. In addition, every year additional LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) come to market, however this year this amount was one of the lowest in history. Last year we could import a lot of LNG to EU, since China did not need it due to lock-outs etc. Now China is coming back as a huge buyer, with a strong financial power. We do not yet if we have a dry or wet season ahead of us, the temperatures during next winter or how the French nuclear power will work. Therefore, the winter 2022/2023 could be much more difficult and EU and the member states need to take measures and prepare.
Finally, he talked about a huge opportunity for EU – to develop a new master plan for European industry and its competitiveness, especially for clean energy technologies. The global industry is entering a new age – the age of clean energy technology. China is leading “big times” when it comes to batteries, solar PV, electrolysers and wind power. In US the Inflation Reduction Act, supporting clean energy technology manufacturing (such as for example solar PV, electric vehicles, batteries, insulation and heat pumps*) has come into force. Europe must come up with a master plan, to look at the supply chains and secure them, to identify where to focus and invest, and where not to focus. To continue to work with innovation!
A representative from the Commission made an update about the revisions of the different directives and regulations linked to REPowerEU. She said that a lot progress is done on the Energy Efficiency Directive (EDD), which are important for buildings, that additional pressure is put on the public sectors, which will have a 3% per year renovation obligation. Within the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) there will be a lot of focus on MEPS (Minimum Efficiency Performance Standard) and the worst performing buildings. Moreover, within some of the REPowerEU chapters, the Commission is preparing guidance, how to make buildings heat pump ready.
She revealed that the Commission is planning to come forward with a heat pump action plan, to boost the deployment of heat pumps. This plan will be linked to the green financing plan and the plan will be elaborated by the Commission together with member states and the business actors. This plan will be part of the Green Deal Industrial Plan, which was presented by the Commission on 1 February, 2023. Within this plan the Commission will propose a Net-Zero Industry Act to identify goals for net-zero industrial capacity and provide a regulatory framework suited for its quick deployment, ensuring simplified and fast-track permitting, promoting European strategic projects, and developing standards to support the scale-up of technologies across the Single Market. The clean energy (net-zero) technologies within this act will be wind power, solar PV, heat pumps, batteries and electrolysers.
As mentioned in the beginning of the article, several topical workshops had been organized during this support project, for the participating EU member states, and one of the them dealt with solar rooftops and heat pumps, including possibilities for solutions where these two technologies are combined and benefit from each other. HPT TCP and Heat Pump Centre was invited to this workshop to present and share general knowledge, experience and recommendations related to heat pumping technologies. Moreover, proof of successful concepts of beneficial and smart combinations of solar rooftops and heat pumps was shown from results from HPT Annex 55/ ES Task 34 Comfort and Climate Box.
*info within brackets added by Heat Pump Centre