The conference officially opened on May 26 in the impressive historical conference venue Vienna Hofburg, welcoming more than 800 conference attendees from all over the world. During the plenary opening session several inspiring keynote presentations were given to set the scene of the conference, where 367 scientific contributions were to be presented.
Thomas Fleckl, from AIT (Austrian Institute of Technology), Chair of the National Organising Committee, welcomed the audience together with the Scientific Director of AIT, Andreas Kugi. Thereafter followed welcoming remarks from Peter Hanke, Federal Minister of Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure, Austria and Jürgen Czernohorszky, Executive Councillor for Climate, Environment, Democracy and Human Resources, City of Vienna.
This was followed a very inspiring intervention by Mary Burce Warlick, Deputy Executive Director, IEA who talked about The Role of Heat Pump Technologies in Reaching Governments’ Policy Priorities. She pointed out how important heat pumping technologies are today for energy security and affordability and for shielding consumers and industries from price shocks – especially during times of uncertainty due to the ongoing energy crisis. Already today, the installed heat pump stock reduces gas demand in Europe today with similar amount as the largest LGN terminal in EU.
She added that yes, the technology is mature and has been used for more than 100 years, but innovation needs to continue. The Kigali agreement drives towards new refrigerants, smart features should be further developed for optimization and flexibility, industrial heat pumps for even higher temperatures are needed and for district heating, heat pumps are key technology for the future, for example large heat pumps to recover waste heat from datacentres.
She emphasized the important role of HPT TCP for ensuring competence and generating and exchanging knowledge.
Stephan Renz, the Chairman of the IEA Technology Collaboration Programme on Heat Pumping Technologies (HPT TCP) gave his opening remarks on the theme Heat Pumping Technologies: Driving Transition Through Innovation and shared information about the different activities in this international collaboration programme.
Sophie Hosatte-Ducassy, the Chair, of the International Organizing Committee of the conference closed the first part of the opening session, but expressing her gratitude toward the different organizing committees of the conference.
Thereafter followed three very interesting energy & climate Policy keynote presentations about
- Global Cooling and Heating Transition: Challenges, Innovation, Tour d’horizon, by Yosr Allouche, Director General, International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR).
- Heat Pumps as Cornerstone for Industrial Decarbonization and Energy Transition, by Riccardo Savigliano, Chief of Energy Systems and Industrial Decarbonization Unit, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
Followed by three Technology & Industry Transformation keynotes
- The Role of Heat Pumps in the Decarbonisation of Vienna, by Karl Gruber, Managing Director, ImWind Gruppe (Wien Energie Gruppe)
- Potential of Industrial Heat Heat Pumps: with some case studys in Japan, by Mitsunobu Nakajo, Director, Heat Pump & Thermal Storage Technology Center of Japan
- Heat Pumps: The Quiet Engine of the Energy Transition, by Rushad Nanavatty, Managing Director, Rocky Mountain Institute.
In the last presentation Rushad Nanavatty made some final remarks:
- Heat pumps are the silent engine of the energy transition – no technology is more important.
- 55-65% of useful energy are addressable by heat pumps
- Heat pumps are our biggest efficiency multiplier! You get out 3 – 6 times the energy you put in
- Heat pumps are a flexibility resource – heat pump networks are distributed power plants in the making
He concluded the presentation by stating that “heat pumps are the silver bullet in the energy transition” to kick of the coming three days of knowledge sharing and interaction.
