Euractiv
Summary
On 9th February, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of the European Parliament adopted its proposal on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The EPBD is critical to support the decarbonisation of European buildings, much of which depends on the rapid phase-out of fossil-based heating.
The Directive took yet another dimension since the Ukraine war, which exposed Europe’s dependence on fossil fuel imports and the importance of heating decarbonisation to achieve our energy independence. Heating and cooling are responsible for about half of the EU energy demand, with more than 40% supplied by gas.
Locally owned and a flagship of the European energy industry, district heating and cooling networks (DHC) are a critical solution to phase out the use of fossil fuels in buildings.
According to the Heat Roadmap Europe, they could supply half of Europe’s heat demand by 2050 by enabling the use of green and local energy sources such as geothermal, solar thermal, sustainable biomass or recovered heat, which its potential remains largely untapped in Europe.
Coupled with large heat pumps and thermal storage, district energy networks can absorb large amounts of renewable electricity, providing cost-efficient balancing and storage to the electricity grid and supplying renewable heating to EU cities.
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