Heating and Cooling
Almost 50% of the final energy consumption in Europe is used for the heating needs of buildings, for domestic hot water production and for heating in industrial processes. With that, heat is the largest consumer of energy. To date, heating supplies generally come from fossil fuels and gas, meaning significant greenhouse gas emissions, as the heating sector alone causes about 38% of the overall EU emissions. Furthermore, the dependency on (fossil) imports is becoming more and more problematic.
Also, in the last decennia cooling has become a major factor in the share of energy consumption - peak hours shifting from winter to summer and creating challenges for the electricity grid.
Still, with renewable heating and cooling sources (solar thermal, geothermal, biomass) alternatives are available and must replace the currently-used fossil fuels and electricity. In particular if combined with energy efficiency measures to optimize consumption in buildings, thanks to increased renewables deployment the European heating and cooling sector could become less dependent on imports and significantly contribute to the EU's climate change objectives.
Renewable heating and cooling is often already economic today, as the payback times are considerably shorter than the lifetime of the devices. The main barriers to growth however are the higher investment costs and in particular a lack of awareness among citizens and in the building sector: renewable heating and cooling has not (yet) received the publicity and binding target policies combined with clever support models as it deserves.
Recognizing this, the Renewable Energy Directive tried to close the legislative gap which existed so far for this sector. However, heating and cooling somehow remains the "sleeping giant" as Member States show less ambition in this area and dedicated support schemes are not yet implemented in all of them - rather often support to biomass is claimed to be heating and cooling support.
Thus for heating and cooling the old and familiar bottlenecks largely remain - and need to be addressed rather today than tomorrow, if Europe wants to reach its low carbon objectives. Dedicated support schemes need to be implemented in each Member State, particularly addressing the investment costs, and public awareness needs to be directed to the cost and emission saving potentials of renewable heating and cooling. Interesting architectural projects and designs could open doors to better reach consumers and awake the giant potential of this sector.