European Commission to draw up EU-wide heat pumps action plan
The European Commission has launched an online public consultation as part of its plans to accelerate the roll-out of heat pumps across the EU.
By enabling a shift away from heating and cooling powered by fossil fuels, stated the Commission in a press release announcing the consultation, heat pumps are central to the clean-energy transition and to achieving carbon neutrality in the building sector.
Input from the consultation will feed into the Commission’s work on an action plan on heat pumps intended for publication in the fourth quarter of this year.
The consultation has been launched in all official EU languages and will run for 12 weeks until 30 August 2023.
The consultation focuses on four main areas, which are central to the expansion of the sector:
- A partnership between the Commission, EU countries and the sector itself
- Communication with all interest groups and a skills partnership for rolling out heat pumps
- Legislation, notably eco-design and energy labelling
- Accessible financing
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A synopsis report of the contributions to this consultation and a summary of the results of all consultations will be published together with the Communication itself.
The REPowerEU plan calls for prioritising investments in renewables and energy efficiency to reduce fossil-fuel imports and for doubling the current roll-out rates of heat pumps in buildings. It also calls for a faster roll-out of large heat pumps for district heating and cooling networks.
The European Commission report on the competitiveness of clean energy technologies indicates that the roll-out of all types of heat pumps needs to accelerate further: from heat pumps for single-family houses, large multi-apartment buildings, tertiary buildings and heat networks, to high-temperature heat pumps for industrial applications.
The Green Deal Industrial Plan further points to heat pumps as one of the key technologies needed to meet EU climate-neutrality goals in the Net-Zero Industry Act to underpin industrial manufacturing.
