At the European Heat Pump Association General Assembly on 19 May, members from 21 countries were invited to share latest progress in their attempt to establish heat pumps as a widely recognised technology in heating and cooling applications. Three major policy initiatives could shape the future of heat pumps in the EU.
Meeting in Linz on 19 May, European heat pump and component manufacturers, associations, research institutes and consultancies discussed achievements for heat pump technology in the EU over the last months. A sense of urgency was felt when the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) called for even a stronger involvement on the side of their members to drive the market uptake of heat pumps in certain EU Member States. Over the past two years, EHPA has been an active player in creating a quality label for heat pumps, shaping guidelines for a more efficient installer education within the EUCERT programme, and compiling the most complete heat pump statistics for EU countries available today.
Issues raised during the day included achievements but also upcoming challenges at the political level, a better coordination of efforts to harmonise the EHPA quality label with existing EU and national labels, and a call for action to join various working groups rewriting existing technical standards and creating new calculation methods to define the performance of heat pumps.
Test standards for CO2 heat pumps under way
When asked about the future of CO
2 heat pump technology, participants’ estimations of when and how the natural refrigerant could conquer the European market similarly to the “Eco-Cute” models sold highly successfully in Japan, largely differed. While some heat pump manufacturers showed high interest in researching the applicability of CO
2 (R744) heat pump technology, others were just starting to consider the heat pump sector as a viable business in general, without yet talking about specific technologies.
The working group defining criteria to grant the EHPA quality label will be targeting large capacity heat pump units, variable capacity models, and CO
2 heat pump hot water heaters this year to define common test regulations applied to the so-called “DACH quality label”.
EU policy shaping the future of heat pumps
Renewable Energy Sources (RES) Directive: When the European Commission and the European Parliament started shaping the RES Directive, heat pumps were initially not meant to be recognised as renewable energy sources in the legal text at all. However, a coordinated effort from the EU heat pump industry ensured that the RES Directive, setting the course for a more sustainable use of energy sources in all EU Member States by 2010 and part of Europe’s ambitious target to achieve a 20% share of renewable energies by 2020, is now mentioning all types of heat pumps. This includes air, water and ground-source models. The final text was accepted by the EU Council in April and will come into force soon. A next major task for EHPA will now be to propose a reliable calculation method to define the Seasonal Performance Factor (SPF) of 2,875 requested by the RES Directive in 2020 for all heat pump models.
Eco-Design Directive: The EU framework law sets requirements for energy-using products, taking into account all environmental aspects throughout their whole life cycle. Three preparatory studies to define individual products groups affect the heat pump industry: all boilers, including heat pumps; hot water heaters; and ventilation. The calculation model proposed to define the energy efficiency of heat pumps has met strong criticism from the European heat pump industry. The ongoing consultation process, however, still leaves room for input by the EHPA and other interested parties.
Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD): The EU law to improve the energy efficiency of all new and renovated buildings is currently under review to make it more effective. After a previous threshold of 1000 m
2 was dropped, its scope is now extended to all but the smallest buildings. Heat pumps are covered as “building components and technical building systems” for which minimum energy efficiency requirements exist. By June 2011, all EU Member States have to draw up national action plans including measures for meeting the requirements.
Coming next
On 20 May, and following the EHPA members discussions, the 2
nd European Heat Pump Forum presented market figures and major trends in selected EU countries to a wider audience. A next article, to be published on R744.com tomorrow, will keep you updated on recent progress for heat pump technology in Europe.
About EHPA
The European Heat Pump Association was established in 2000 to promote awareness and proper deployment of heat pump technology in the European market place. EHPA promotes heat pumps in residential, commercial and industrial applications by providing technical and economic input to European, national and local authorities. In April 2009, it had 72 members from 21 countries.
