As a result, the workshop participants and the board of the RHC-Platform adopted unanimously a resolution, asking the European Commission to include renewable heating and cooling technologies in each single Smart Cities project.
About 50% of today’s final energy demand is used for heating and cooling purposes and cities are the most important actors by transforming our energy system towards sustainability. Accordingly, the RHC-Platform hosted the workshop "Contribution of Renewable Heating and Cooling Technologies to Smart Cities” which was supported by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology. The workshop’s main objective was to discuss the possible contributions of renewable heating and cooling technologies to the Smart Cities Initiative.
In his address to the audience, Gerhard Stryi-Hipp, President of the RHC-Platform, stressed that the urgent transformation of our energy system requires more research and development as well as further innovations. “The SET-Plan is the most powerful instrument in the development of energy technologies by the European Union in the coming decade”, he said, “but beside the great importance of the heating and cooling sector by transforming our energy system to a sustainable one, only the Smart Cities Initiative includes heating and cooling technologies within the SET-Plan.” This is the reason why the RHC-Platform is focusing its activities on the Smart Cities Initiative and demanding an important role for renewable heating and cooling technologies within the initiative.
The central role of renewable heating and cooling technologies in the Initiative was also confirmed at the workshop by Stefan Tostmann, Head of Unit for energy technologies and research coordination at the Directorate-General Energy of the European Commission, responsible for the development of the Smart Cities Initiative. He welcomed the active contribution of the RHC-Platform to the development of the Smart Cities Initiative and announced that this year the European Commission will start the Initiative’s first activities.
The event provided a unique opportunity for representatives of different European municipalities to discuss best practices examples of renewable heating and cooling integration in “smart cities” and in particular the most suitable way of integrating renewable heating and cooling in large as well as in small and medium “smart cities”. As one example, the city of Graz presented their district heating system which is mainly driven by renewable energies.
Finally, the workshop participants adopted a resolution on the Smart Cities Initiative. This resolution, which was also adopted by the board of the RHC-Platform, consists of a seven-point recommendation outlining how the Smart Cities Initiative should be structured. It proposes to only support cities within the Smart Cities Initiative with a master plan which includes the development of the heating and cooling sector, specific RHC-targets, solutions requiring a mix of different RHC-technologies and energy efficiency, and which also takes full advantage of local resources.
The European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating & Cooling (RHC-Platform) brings together industry, research and policy stakeholders from the biomass, geothermal and solar thermal sectors to determine a common strategy for increasing the use of renewable energy technologies in heating and cooling.
Building on the experience acquired since 2005 within the European Solar Thermal Technology Platform (ESTTP), now incorporated in the RHC-Platform, four major European organisations – EUREC, AEBIOM, EGEC and ESTIF – are spearheading the development of a common Vision and a Strategic Research Agenda for the renewable heating and cooling sector in Europe.
The RHC-Platform, officially endorsed by the European Commission since October 2008, is playing a decisive role in maximising synergies and strengthening efforts towards research, development and technological innovation which will consolidate Europe’s leading position in the sector.
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