Step forward for heat pumps in the EU

The European Parliament's Industry Committee backed EU legislation that targets extensive deployment of renewable technologies, including all types of heat pumps. New rules could also promote, or oblige, the use of renewable technologies in new and existing buildings.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) voted on 11 September in favour of proposals that will consider all types of heat pumps as renewable, against claims that they should not be considered so because they require auxiliary energy. Initial intention of the ITRE Committee was to discriminate among different types of heat pumps, excluding air-source heat pumps from the proposed Directive. However, the vote supported the enhancement of the definition for Renewable Energy Sources (RES) to include aerothermal, hydrothermal and geothermal energy sources, as EU law currently does not encompass a harmonised definition of those.

The inclusion of all types of heat pumps as renewable technologies in combination with the proposal that EU member states should impose new rules that would promote, or oblige, the use of renewable technologies in new and existing buildings significantly strengthens the market potential for heat pumps in the EU market.

Other main points of proposals by the ITRE Committee include:

• 20% share of renewable energy in 2020: The vote supported the EU goal of achieving a 20% share of renewable energy in overall Community’s final energy consumption in 2020.
   
• Interim renewable energy targets: The vote supported the introduction of interim targets for EU member states, backed by the threat of financial penalties of up to €110 per MW for non compliance. In contrast, financial award in the range of €30 to €40 per MW is foreseen for member states that overachieve targets.

• A flexibility mechanism, that would enable EU member states to engage in joint renewables projects and record renewable energy capacity increases as progress towards their individual targets based on the level of participation of each country.

• Priority network access for renewable energy: Energy from renewable sources would gain priority access to existing electricity and gas infrastructure.

• No changes to the individual renewable energy targets set for EU member states by the Commission in its original proposal.

• No trade of guarantees of origin certificates: The Committee opposed to the original European Commission proposal to create an EU-wide system for trading in virtual guarantees of origin certificates for renewable energy

Next steps & background

The ITRE vote was important, as the Industry Committee leads the debate in Parliament on the issue of renewables. A vote by the whole European Parliament plenary is due later this year. This issue is now in the first reading under the co-decision procedure that requires the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union to agree on a final text. The whole process might take up to 3 years before a proposal becomes law. The review of the Renewable Energy Directive is based on a proposal put forward by the European Commission on 23 January 2008. Original targets of the proposal include an overall renewable energy target of 20% by 2020 and individual targets to be achieved by member states.