The RHC-Platform publishes its Common Vision

Renewable Heating and Cooling technologies take centre stage as their real potential is highlighted at the 2nd Annual Conference of the RHC-Platform in Budapest

Brussels, 13 May 2011. Around 150 European experts from the Renewable Heating and Cooling sector met in Budapest on 5 and 6 May at the 2nd Annual Conference of the European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC-Platform). Experts are convinced that biomass, geothermal and solar thermal energy together with heat pumps can cover 100% of Europe’s heating and cooling demand before the year 2050, as outlined in the new “Common Vision” publication. To realise this huge potential, the RHC-Platform advocates a significant budget increase for research and development in renewable heating and cooling technologies over the next few years.

The conference was held under the auspices of the Hungarian Presidency of the European Union and with the support of the European Commission, the Hungarian Ministry of National Development and REECO Hungary. Participants included decision makers at EU, national and regional level, researchers, industry representatives, as well as other stakeholders from various sectors such as solar thermal, geothermal, biomass as well as district heating and cooling, storage, hybrid systems and heat pumps. They engaged in lively discussions on the status and perspectives of these technologies while exploring the opportunities of future collaboration.

In the opening session, Marie Donnelly, Director of New and Renewable Sources of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Innovation, DG Energy of the European Commission, emphasized the progress made by renewable heating and cooling, now topping policy makers’ agendas, and complimented the RHC-Platform on the role it has played in this advance. She also underlined the European Commission’s expectations in connection with the RHC-Platform’s activities in identifying the specific strategic research priorities for the sustainable heating and cooling sector in Europe.
Péter Olajos, Hungarian Deputy State Secretary for Green Economy and Climate Policy, outlined the developments in the Hungarian market for renewable energy technologies. The issue of how to accelerate innovation cycles was broached by Giovanni Colombo, member of the Executive Committee of the European Institute of Technology’s Governing Board. He also explained why information and communication technologies will play an important part in the future of renewable heating and cooling.
“The high level speakers and participants, as well as the productive dialogue among experts contributed to the great success of the conference”, said Gerhard Stryi-Hipp, President of the European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling. The RHC-Platform is unique, because it brings together stakeholders from different sectors who are working together on the common challenge to provide 100% renewable energy solutions to our heating and cooling needs. “We are very pleased that Renewable Heating and Cooling is high on the European policy agenda. With additional support for research ad development at the EU and national level, renewable energy will become the mainstream source of our heating and cooling systems” Stryi-Hipp explained.
The closing session was attended by another policy maker, with the contribution from Béla Glattfelder, Member of the European Parliament and President of the Hungarian Solar Association, who gave a positive outlook on the future development of renewable heating and cooling in Europe, within the framework of the RHC-Platform future activities.
The conference culminated in the presentation of a document of fundamental importance for the continued advancement of this sector, the Common Vision for the Renewable Heating and Cooling Sector in Europe (available at www.rhc-platform.org). This publication represents the joint effort of experts in this sector to plot a course to the ever increasing deployment of renewable heating and cooling in Europe.

The Annual Conference of the RHC-Platform is the largest event of its kind, bringing together leading renewable heating and cooling players from industry and research, as well as high-level policy and decision makers. The conference is organised by the Secretariat of the RHC-Platform, which is coordinated by the European Renewable Energy Research Centres Agency (EUREC) and managed with the European Biomass Association (AEBIOM), the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) and the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF).

Coming soon on the RHC-Platform website: Videos of Plenary Sessions and selection of technology panels
Interviews of Key Speakers and RHC-Platform Members, touching on the most important issues facing renewable heating and cooling in Europe.

Further information:
Simone Landolina
EUREC Agency (Coordinator of the RHC-Platform’s Secretariat)                                                       Tel: +32 2 546 1943 Fax: +32 2 546 1934 Landolina@eurec.be
Theresa Doetsch
ESTIF Tel: +32 2 546 1989 theresa.doetsch@estif.org
Sarah Keane
EGEC
Tel: +32 2 400 1027 s.keane@egec.org