RES heating and cooling – Strategic actions development (RES H/C SPREAD)

Description

The potential of renewable energies for heating and cooling is still largely unexploited in the EU and plays a crucial role in the transition to an efficient and decarbonised energy system and in the achievement of energy security in the long term. The challenge is thus to mitigate heating and cooling demand by increasing the efficiency of plants and buildings, maximizing the use of renewable energy and reducing heating and cooling costs to levels accessible to all. The European Commission is seriously committed to promoting the use of these energy sources and technologies, as demonstrated by the Renewable Energy Directive (Binding National Targets, National Renewable Energy Action Plans) and the Energy Efficiency Directive (Art. 14, the need to exploit RES H/C potential and develop heating markets at the local and regional levels).

In this framework, given that the production and management of energy produced from renewables is closely linked to the territory and, in general, is independent from national operators, regional and local public administrators require targeted support to improve their planning and governance capabilities. The RES H/C SPREAD (RES Heating and Cooling – Strategic Actions Development) project, recognizing the central role of local authorities, aimed to provide them with support in terms of knowledge and best practices in order to strengthen their capacity for planning in a sustainable development framework.

Results

In collaboration with the European pilot regions participating in the project, six regional plans for heating and cooling from RES have been developed.

Based on that experience, the project has produced and tested methodological guidelines and tools that are and will continue to be made available to local energy agencies and regional administrations who wish to use and benefit from them.

The methodology followed for the development of the plans can be described in five basic steps:

• strategic vision and goal setting;
• ollection and organization of data;
• development of territorial maps and relative analysis of heating and cooling demand as well as supply potential from renewable sources;
• cost-benefit analysis; and
• identification of intervention strategies and their implementation policies (according to the strategic objectives set at the beginning).

Materials