Fostering the use of renewable energies for heating and cooling

The progRESsHEAT project aims at assisting local, regional, national and EU political leaders in developing policy and strategies to ensure a quick and efficient deployment of renewables in heating and cooling networks.The project’s aim is in line with the objectives of the Renewable Energy Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive that require Member States to develop ambitious policies as regards the use of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency in heating and cooling networks.progRESsHEAT is intended to support the market uptake of existing and emerging renewable electricity, heating and cooling technologies. More specifically, the project helps policy makers develop integrated, effective and efficient policy strategies aimed at achieving a fast and strong penetration of renewable and efficient heating and cooling systems. This includes the analysis of cross-sectoral effects between renewables and energy efficiency measures in industrial heat and cold, waste heat, heating and cooling in buildings and district heating.Together with six local authorities in six target countries across Europe (Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Denmark, Portugal, Romania), heating and cooling strategies will be developed through a profound analysis of (1) heating and cooling demand and future developments, (2) long-term potential of renewable energies and waste heat in the regions, (3) barriers & drivers and (4) a model-based assessment of policy intervention in scenarios up to 2050. The established local energy advisory tool EnergyPRO will be used for the local studies and further developed to appropriately reflect district heating and cooling. The final versions for the investigated regions will be handed over to the authorities.In the target countries, progRESsHEAT will support the implementation of national heating and cooling plans which have to be released by member states by the end of 2015. The plans will include a policy outlook on how the potentials identified by the comprehensive assessment will be achieved. progRESsHEAT will assist national policy makers in implementing suitable policies with a model-based quantitative impact assessment of local, regional and national policies up to 2050.Policy makers and other stakeholders are strongly considered in the process. They will be offered the opportunity to learn from the experience of other players and gain deep understanding of the impact of policy instruments and their specific design. They are involved in the project via policy group meetings, workshops, interviews and webinars dedicated to policy development assistance, capacity-building and dissemination.The project is supported by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union.