The Spanish Government has designated CIEMAT to be the contracting Party in the HPT TCP by IEA. The CIEMAT (Centre of Research on energy, environment and the technologies related to them) is a public research body assigned to the Ministry of Science and Innovation under the General Secretariat for Research. It has offices in several different regions of Spain, and its activity intends to form a bridge between R&D&I and social interest goals. It has long experience representing Spain in the International Energy Agency (9 TCPs in total).
The Executive Committee’s delegate is Guillermo Zaragoza, head of Solar Thermal Applications at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria –CIEMAT, and alternate delegate is Alberto Coronas, professor of Thermal Engineering at the Rovira I Virgili University (Tarragona).
“We are excited to be a part of HPT TCP, a programme that is gaining more importance and relevance as we speak. We are looking forward to many fruitful and prosperous co-operations on all aspects of heat pumping technologies with the other participating countries.” says Mr Zaragoza.
The current Spanish National Energy and Climate (ENCP) Plan 2021-30, envisions a greater than 5-fold increase in the contribution of heat pumps to the energy sector of the country: from about 26 TJ to 148 TJ. In the update of the Plan, currently in process, it is intended to revise the emission reduction targets up to 55% by 2030, and to include the objectives and proposals of the “Fit for 55” package of measures and the REPowerEU Plan. This means, in accordance with the ongoing short-term strategy for improving Energy Security, more ambitious objectives in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency. There are specific objectives to substitute boilers for efficient climate control technologies based on heat pumping. Heat pumps are expected to play a significant role in the improvement of energy efficiency in the industry, to cover air conditioning uses and also the electrification of heat demand in the industrial and service sectors.