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13.05.2011 12:02

European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling 2011

AUTHOR: publics.bg

© Ritter Solar

Brussels, 11th May 2011. Around 150 European experts from the Renewable Heating and Cooling sector gathered in Budapest on 5th and 6th of May for the 2nd Annual Conference of the European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC-Platform). The experts are convinced that biomass, geothermal and solar thermal energy together with heat pumps can cover 100% of Europe’s heating and cooling demand before the year 2050, as outlined in the new “Common Vision” publication.

In order to realise this huge potential, the RHC-Platform advocates a strong increase in the budget for research and development in renewable heating and cooling technologies over the next years.

The conference was held under the auspices of the Hungarian Presidency of the European Union and with the support of the European Commission, the Hungarian Ministry of National Development and REECO Hungary. Participants included decision makers at EU, national and regional level, researchers, industry representatives and other stakeholders from solar thermal, geothermal, biomass as well as district heating and cooling, storage, hybrid systems and heat pumps who lively discussed the status and perspectives ofthese technologies while exploring the opportunities of future cooperation.

In the opening session, Marie Donnelly, Director of New and Renewable Sources of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Innovation, DG Energy of the European Commission emphasised the progress renewable heating and cooling has made in rising up the agenda of policy makers, and complimented the role that the RHC-Platform has played in this progress. She also underlined the European Commission’s expectations as regards the RHC-Platform’s activities to identify the specific strategic research priorities for the sustainable heating and cooling sector in Europe.

Péter Olajos, Hungarian Deputy State Secretary for Green Economy and Climate Policy, highlighted the developing Hungarian market for renewable energy technologies. The issue of how to accelerate innovation cycles was tackled by Giovanni Colombo, member of the Executive Committee of the European Institute of Technology’s Governing Board. He also explained why information and communication technologies will play an important role in the future of renewable heating and cooling.

“The high level of speakers and participants as well as the productive dialogue among the experts determined the great success of the conference”, said Gerhard Stryi-Hipp, President of the European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling. The RHC-Platform is unique, because it brings together stakeholders from different sectors which are working together on the common challenge to provide 100% renewable energy solutions to our heating and cooling needs.

The Annual Conference of the RHC-Platform is the largest event of its kind, bringing together leading renewable heating and cooling players from industry and research, as well as high-level policy and decision makers. The conference is organised by the Secretariat of the RHC-Platform, which is coordinated by the European Renewable Energy Research Centres Agency (EUREC) and managed with the European Biomass Association (AEBIOM), the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) and the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF).

An overall conference highlight was the presentation of a document of fundamental importance for the continued advancement of this sector, the Common Vision for the Renewable Heating and Cooling Sector in Europe (available on rhc-platform.org , http://www.rhc-platform.org/cms/). This document represents the joint effort of experts in this sector to plot a course to the ever increasing deployment of renewable heating and cooling in Europe.