Heating and cooling account for roughly half of the energy consumed in the European Union. The decarbonization of the heating sector is therefore vital to the EU's goal to be a climate-neutral continent by 2050.
According to a study carried out by the European Commission, district heating and cooling (DHC) is one of the main infrastructures allowing decarbonisation by integrating renewable and carbon neutral energy sources and technologies and participating in energy system integration.
Due to the local nature of heat, municipalities and city stakeholders can play a major role in tackling main challenges and opportunities to accelerate the deployment of heat networks. Strong involvement of local authorities supports the implementation of projects such as RES-DHC and WEDISTRICT; and cities are well placed to design low-carbon pathways including a district energy strategy that considers societal, environmental and economic benefits.
On the other hand, economical barriers are very common. District heating is a cost-effective and sustainable technology, but its widespread adoption is limited due to financing challenges. In this case, the solutions exist and are well known. Measure addressing economical barriers can mostly be addressed by finding and spreading the knowledge about possible sources for financing, innovative business models or quantifying the other advantages of renewable solutions, lobbying for incentive taxes on fossil fuels or any other change in framework conditions would be able to improve the economical calculation.
Join the workshop and learn about:
- The role of public authorities as leaders of the energy transition, driving forward the decarbonisation agenda;
- The importance of public authorities in leading and deploying DHC projects as effective infrastructure to decarbonise cities;
- The importance of a supportive policy framework to tackle main challenges and opportunities to accelerate the deployment of heat networks;
- The importance of paying attention to the need for investments, particularly from private side to support public authorities in all this
Speakers:
- Álvaro Navarrete Armisén, Energy Services Analyst (Acciona Energia)
- Dirk Mangold, Executive Director (Solites)
- Nicolas Picou, Thermal Renewable Energy Project Manager (AURA-EE)
- Stefan Thalmann, Project Manager, QM district heating (Verenum)
- Riccardo Battisti, Senior Project Manager, (Ambiente Italia)
This workshop is organised within the framework of the RES-DHC and WEDISTRICT project and is not included in your Congress ticket. Please, register in advance by clicking on this link.
By attending this workshop, you can get a 20% discount for the EHP Congress ticket. For more information, please contact lj@euroheat.org.
