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Green heat
Green Heat
Green heat Europe leads the way
Europe will become the first jurisdiction in the world to grasp the environmental contribution from Green Heat technologies and, likely, will suck up most of the economic benefits as a result of its 'early adopter' status. Bill Eggertson reports.
T
he European Parliament has supported a proposal to set "realistic and ambitious" targets by 2020 to double (at least) the share of heating and cooling from renewable energy sources. National targets will take into account the differences among member countries and the potential for solar thermal, geothermal heat pumps, biomass and cogeneration to contribute to those targets. German MEP Mechtild Rothe drafted the proposal as chair of the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources, and Parliament voted 519 to 60 in favour of the concept. Energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs has promised to table a proposal for a directive later this year. For many months, this column has argued that Green Heat is not only a clever, but an essential step. More than 40% of primary energy in Europe is consumed by heating and cooling, and most countries emit more GHG from these applications than from coal-fired generating stations. Despite that knowledge, billions of dollars / Euros are subsidizing
About the author Bill Eggertson is Executive Director of the Canadian Association for Renewable Energies (C.A.R.E.). He also compiles Refocus Weekly news which is distributed free every week to subscribers around the world, to keep you informed of trends as the various RE technologies transition into mainstream energy applications. More information: www.re-focus.net for Refocus Weekly or www.renewables.ca to find out more about C.A.R.E
64 reFOCUS
March/April 2006
for the public and an increase in research efforts." The document also explains that financial incentives should be provided by member states, with support to be limited in time and gradually reduced, and support conditions which are reliable and consistent in the medium term. Stopand-go market developments should be "An increase in the share of renewable avoided and the economic feasibility of renewables must be accelerated by energy used in heating and cooling extending mass production, with costshould make a substantive contribution to securing European energy supplies, to effective renewables to be supported "regardless of their size." creating jobs and to improving the environment, and significantly reduce The potential for Green Heat "has so demand in the EU for conventional energy, overall energy consumption in the EU far hardly been tapped (and) ought to be exploited," but such action "must not heating and the cooling sector, the EU's dependence on oil and gas, in particular, provide an excuse for the EU not to and the cost of energy to consumers for become the most energy efficient economy in the world by 2020," the document domestic and professional uses," the explains. Member states should ensure adopted text explains. Each country that the public is "fully informed about would be required to agree on action possible applications" of Green Heat and plans within a year, and to renew those publish studies concerning the benefits to action plans every three years. consumers from these technologies. They should ensure that professional groups Directives to promote green power are "familiar with and master the approand green fuels have boosted sustainable development in Europe, and market priate technologies" and ensure that "renewable energy technologies are developments in renewables vary enormously among countries ... not because accorded the importance they deserve in training and further training." of differences in the potential but due to "different and, in some cases, inadeGovernments were the early purquate political and legal framework conchasers of green power and green fuels, ditions," the document explains. The and we have argued that the public secpromotion of a market for Green Heat tor should also give high priority to heatwill achieve the Lisbon objectives by ing and cooling from Green Heat as part increasing employment and increasing of its procurement policy, a position with research and innovation, and member states should "identify the potentials for which the EP concurs because of the utilisation of these resources, show how cost-effectiveness in new construction or renovations to government facilities. It they can be exploited more effectively, also calls on the EU to launch continental ensure legal clarity, better information green power and green fuels for transportation, while Green Heat is woefully overlooked. This neglect has continued, despite evidence that the installation of solar collectors, earth energy and other distributed resource facilities, can create more employment per dollar of investment than either of the other greens.
1471 0846/06 © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Green Heat
information campaigns to highlight the use of Green Heat and to increase research efforts to facilitate greater market penetration of renewable energy for heating and cooling. While incentives will be allowed, "care should be taken to ensure that there is no disproportionate increase in heating and cooling costs for the final consumer," the document states. I am thrilled that Green Heat has finally moved so unambiguously onto the energy agenda. I had hoped that the lobbying in Canada for the past five years would have prompted my home country to take the lead but .... c'est la vie.
Next challenge Gaining recognition is an important first step, but it will not be the most difficult. The European Parliament wants a "clear definition" for geothermal, solar thermal (inc. passive), biomass, district heating and district cooling using renewables, and to develop a continent-wide monitoring system to create a "reliable and comparable data resource" that will assess the requirements for Green Heat and to monitor its growth of the share of renewables. This is where the next real challenge will arise. Defining and monitoring green power or green fuel is relatively easy; insert a meter on the wire or keep your eye on some dials. It is far more difficult for Green Heat, which frequently involves off-grid distributed resources. In the '90s, my association noted that the U.S. Department of Energy reported only marketed renewables and ignored the contribution from non-marketed sources (including off-grid green power installations), which effectively would have doubled the share of renewables in that country. We have long criticized the lack of any database on renewables (benchmark or forecast, marketed or non-marketed) in Canada and, recently, we started to lobby the International Energy Agency to expand their reporting on renewables to include Green Heat technologies. Defining which technologies are eligible will be a challenge; does the heat recovered from wastewater coils qualify as 'new' or 'recycled' energy? Do we repeat the debate that pervades energy from waste, arguing that garbage disposal should be reduced first? Then there's a problem in quantifying output. Is the energy from passive solar the same if a curtain is drawn over the window? Does earth energy count the energy consumed or the energy delivered? This column has often asked the rhetorical question, "If the energy is not metered or sold, does it exist?" The European Parliament wants to dismantle administrative barriers by requiring its member countries to have a clear legal framework for the control and certification of Green Heat. If green power technologies have been fighting this battle for so long, when their commodity is a relatively easier (i.e. meter-able) one, will the fuzzy nature of Green Heat involve protracted debate? As they say, "the devil is in the details." I, for one, will be watching Europe's progress very closely as it moves ahead on supporting the third leg of the renewable energy triad.
www.re-focus.net
March/April 2006
reFOCUS 65
Green heat Europe leads the way
Europe will become the first jurisdiction in the world to grasp the environmental contribution from Green Heat technologies and, likely, will suck up most of the economic benefits as a result of its 'early adopter' status. Bill Eggertson reports.
T
he European Parliament has supported a proposal to set "realistic and ambitious" targets by 2020 to double (at least) the share of heating and cooling from renewable energy sources. National targets will take into account the differences among member countries and the potential for solar thermal, geothermal heat pumps, biomass and cogeneration to contribute to those targets. German MEP Mechtild Rothe drafted the proposal as chair of the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources, and Parliament voted 519 to 60 in favour of the concept. Energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs has promised to table a proposal for a directive later this year. For many months, this column has argued that Green Heat is not only a clever, but an essential step. More than 40% of primary energy in Europe is consumed by heating and cooling, and most countries emit more GHG from these applications than from coal-fired generating stations. Despite that knowledge, billions of dollars / Euros are subsidizing
About the author Bill Eggertson is Executive Director of the Canadian Association for Renewable Energies (C.A.R.E.). He also compiles Refocus Weekly news which is distributed free every week to subscribers around the world, to keep you informed of trends as the various RE technologies transition into mainstream energy applications. More information: www.re-focus.net for Refocus Weekly or www.renewables.ca to find out more about C.A.R.E
64 reFOCUS
March/April 2006
for the public and an increase in research efforts." The document also explains that financial incentives should be provided by member states, with support to be limited in time and gradually reduced, and support conditions which are reliable and consistent in the medium term. Stopand-go market developments should be "An increase in the share of renewable avoided and the economic feasibility of renewables must be accelerated by energy used in heating and cooling extending mass production, with costshould make a substantive contribution to securing European energy supplies, to effective renewables to be supported "regardless of their size." creating jobs and to improving the environment, and significantly reduce The potential for Green Heat "has so demand in the EU for conventional energy, overall energy consumption in the EU far hardly been tapped (and) ought to be exploited," but such action "must not heating and the cooling sector, the EU's dependence on oil and gas, in particular, provide an excuse for the EU not to and the cost of energy to consumers for become the most energy efficient economy in the world by 2020," the document domestic and professional uses," the explains. Member states should ensure adopted text explains. Each country that the public is "fully informed about would be required to agree on action possible applications" of Green Heat and plans within a year, and to renew those publish studies concerning the benefits to action plans every three years. consumers from these technologies. They should ensure that professional groups Directives to promote green power are "familiar with and master the approand green fuels have boosted sustainable development in Europe, and market priate technologies" and ensure that "renewable energy technologies are developments in renewables vary enormously among countries ... not because accorded the importance they deserve in training and further training." of differences in the potential but due to "different and, in some cases, inadeGovernments were the early purquate political and legal framework conchasers of green power and green fuels, ditions," the document explains. The and we have argued that the public secpromotion of a market for Green Heat tor should also give high priority to heatwill achieve the Lisbon objectives by ing and cooling from Green Heat as part increasing employment and increasing of its procurement policy, a position with research and innovation, and member states should "identify the potentials for which the EP concurs because of the utilisation of these resources, show how cost-effectiveness in new construction or renovations to government facilities. It they can be exploited more effectively, also calls on the EU to launch continental ensure legal clarity, better information green power and green fuels for transportation, while Green Heat is woefully overlooked. This neglect has continued, despite evidence that the installation of solar collectors, earth energy and other distributed resource facilities, can create more employment per dollar of investment than either of the other greens.
1471 0846/06 © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Green Heat
information campaigns to highlight the use of Green Heat and to increase research efforts to facilitate greater market penetration of renewable energy for heating and cooling. While incentives will be allowed, "care should be taken to ensure that there is no disproportionate increase in heating and cooling costs for the final consumer," the document states. I am thrilled that Green Heat has finally moved so unambiguously onto the energy agenda. I had hoped that the lobbying in Canada for the past five years would have prompted my home country to take the lead but .... c'est la vie.
Next challenge Gaining recognition is an important first step, but it will not be the most difficult. The European Parliament wants a "clear definition" for geothermal, solar thermal (inc. passive), biomass, district heating and district cooling using renewables, and to develop a continent-wide monitoring system to create a "reliable and comparable data resource" that will assess the requirements for Green Heat and to monitor its growth of the share of renewables. This is where the next real challenge will arise. Defining and monitoring green power or green fuel is relatively easy; insert a meter on the wire or keep your eye on some dials. It is far more difficult for Green Heat, which frequently involves off-grid distributed resources. In the '90s, my association noted that the U.S. Department of Energy reported only marketed renewables and ignored the contribution from non-marketed sources (including off-grid green power installations), which effectively would have doubled the share of renewables in that country. We have long criticized the lack of any database on renewables (benchmark or forecast, marketed or non-marketed) in Canada and, recently, we started to lobby the International Energy Agency to expand their reporting on renewables to include Green Heat technologies. Defining which technologies are eligible will be a challenge; does the heat recovered from wastewater coils qualify as 'new' or 'recycled' energy? Do we repeat the debate that pervades energy from waste, arguing that garbage disposal should be reduced first? Then there's a problem in quantifying output. Is the energy from passive solar the same if a curtain is drawn over the window? Does earth energy count the energy consumed or the energy delivered? This column has often asked the rhetorical question, "If the energy is not metered or sold, does it exist?" The European Parliament wants to dismantle administrative barriers by requiring its member countries to have a clear legal framework for the control and certification of Green Heat. If green power technologies have been fighting this battle for so long, when their commodity is a relatively easier (i.e. meter-able) one, will the fuzzy nature of Green Heat involve protracted debate? As they say, "the devil is in the details." I, for one, will be watching Europe's progress very closely as it moves ahead on supporting the third leg of the renewable energy triad.
www.re-focus.net
March/April 2006
reFOCUS 65