Paper No 238 – The role of electric heat pumps in the decarbonisation of the heating sector in Europe – 13th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Jeju, Korea
Mitigation of greenhouse gases, dependency of fossil fuel and security of energy supply are on top of the agenda in all energy discussions. This sets the focus on energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in all sectors. The European Union has set ambitious targets to improve energy efficiency, increase the use of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Up until recent years most of the focus has been on the electricity and transport sector. The building sector has largely been overlooked. However as approximately 40% of the total energy use in Europe is related to buildings, this sector has one of the largest potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The objective of this paper is to present a general methodology on how to determine greenhouse gas emissions related to different sources of heating and to what extent a wide introduction of electric heat pumps will contribute to a decarbonisation of the heating sector. The methodology is additionally used to calculate primary energy savings as well as to give an indication of potential operating cost savings by use of available statistics for different energy sources. The results show that electric heat pumps has a significant potential to improve energy efficiency (53 – 81%) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (57 – 99%) while replacing old inefficient boilers in Europe.