Launched at the beginning of 2005 with support from the Intelligent Energy Europe programme. the ECOHEATCOOL project carried out by Euroheat & Power, in cooperation with 13 partners across Europe was concluded at the end of December 2006.
The project assessed the heating and cooling markets, looked for possibilities for more district heating and district cooling in Europe, provided recommendations for policy makers and developed a tool for assessing the efficiency of district heating and cooling systems. The project showed that district heating and cooling grids make it possible to optimally use and combine a large spectrum of "free" energy inputs: surplus heat from electricity production based on conventional or renewable fuels, from waste incineration and/or from industrial processes as well as different forms of renewable heat (i.e. geothermal, heat/cold from deep-sea or lake water).
Air conditioning is the process of removing heat and moisture from the interior of an occupied space, to improve the comfort of occupants. Air conditioning can be used in both domestic and commercial environments. This process is most commonly used to achieve a more comfortable interior environment, typically for humans and other animals; however, air conditioning is also used to cool/dehumidify rooms filled with heat-producing electronic devices, such as computer servers, power amplifiers, and even to display and store some delicate products, such as artwork.
District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating. The heat is often obtained from a cogeneration plant burning fossil fuels or biomass, but heat-only boiler stations, geothermal heating, heat pumps and central solar heating are also used, as well as heat waste from nuclear power electricity generation. District heating plants can provide higher efficiencies and better pollution control than localized boilers. According to some research, district heating with combined heat and power (CHPDH) is the cheapest method of cutting carbon emissions, and has one of the lowest carbon footprints of all fossil generation plants. Fifth generation district heat networks do not use combustion on-site and have zero emissions of CO2 and NO2 on-site; they employ heat transfer which uses electricity which may be generated from renewable energy, or from remote fossil fuelled power stations. A combination of CHP and centralized heat pumps are used in the Stockholm multi energy system. This allows the production of heat through electricity when there is an abundance of intermittent power production and cogeneration of electric power and district heating when the availability of intermittent power production is low.
District cooling is the cooling equivalent of district heating. Working on broadly similar principles to district heating, district cooling delivers chilled water to buildings like offices and factories needing cooling. In winter, the source for the cooling can often be sea water, so it is a cheaper resource than using electricity to run compressors for cooling. Alternatively, District Cooling can be provided by a Heat Sharing Network which enables each building on the circuit to use a heat pump to reject heat to an ambient ground temperature circuit.
The Ecoheatcool project became a reference for district heating and cooling sector, its findings being used in the arguments provided to European Union and national policy makers. It enabled the development of a vision, quantification of the benefits which the district heating and cooling sector can bring to achieving the EU policy objectives: energy efficiency, environmental protection, security of supply, use of renewable energy sources, avoided investments in peak electricity capacities, and evaluation of the costs.
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2 (1,728,099 sq mi) and an estimated population of about 513 million. The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where members have agreed to act as one. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. For travel within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished. A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002 and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency.
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature. Installing LED lighting, fluorescent lighting, or natural skylight windows reduces the amount of energy required to attain the same level of illumination compared to using traditional incandescent light bulbs. Improvements in energy efficiency are generally achieved by adopting a more efficient technology or production process or by application of commonly accepted methods to reduce energy losses.
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A heat pump is a device that transfers heat energy from a source of heat to what is called a heat sink. Heat pumps move thermal energy in the opposite direction of spontaneous heat transfer, by absorbing heat from a cold space and releasing it to a warmer one. A heat pump uses a small amount of external power to accomplish the work of transferring energy from the heat source to the heat sink.
The most common design of a heat pump involves four main components – a condenser, an expansion valve, an evaporator and a compressor. The heat transfer medium circulated through these components is called refrigerant.
Solar thermal energy (STE) is a form of energy and a technology for harnessing solar energy to generate thermal energy or electrical energy for use in industry, and in the residential and commercial sectors.
Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Trigeneration or combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) refers to the simultaneous generation of electricity and useful heating and cooling from the combustion of a fuel or a solar heat collector. The terms cogeneration and trigeneration can be also applied to the power systems generating simultaneously electricity, heat, and industrial chemicals – e.g., syngas or pure hydrogen.
A zero-energy building, also known as a zero net energy (ZNE) building, net-zero energy building (NZEB), net zero building or zero-carbon building is a building with zero net energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site, or in other definitions by renewable energy sources elsewhere. These buildings consequently contribute less overall greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than similar non-ZNE buildings. They do at times consume non-renewable energy and produce greenhouse gases, but at other times reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas production elsewhere by the same amount. A similar concept approved and implemented by the European Union and other agreeing countries is nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB), with the goal of having all buildings in the region under nZEB standards by 2020.
Renewable heat is an application of renewable energy and it refers to the renewable generation of heat, rather than electrical power. Renewable heat technologies include renewable biofuels, solar heating, geothermal heating, heat pumps and heat exchangers to recover lost heat. Significant attention is also applied to insulation.
The potential for exploiting geothermal energy in the United Kingdom on a commercial basis was initially examined by the Department of Energy in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. Several regions of the country were identified, but interest in developing them was lost as petroleum prices fell. Although the UK is not actively volcanic, a large heat resource is potentially available via shallow geothermal ground source heat pumps, shallow aquifers and deep saline aquifers in the mesozoic basins of the UK. Geothermal energy is plentiful beneath the UK, although it is not readily accessible currently except in specific locations.
Renewable energy in Finland grew to 38.7% of total final energy consumption by year end 2014, achieving joint second position with Latvia in terms of renewable energy consumption by share amongst the EU-28 countries, behind its neighbour Sweden in first position on a 52.6% share. The 2014 share in Finland breaks down as renewable energy providing 52% of the heating and cooling sector, 31.4% of the electricity sector and 21.6% of the transport sector. By 2014 Finland had already exceeded its 2020 target for renewable energy use under the EU renewable energy directive as shown in the table of country targets.
Electricity from renewable sources in Spain represented 42.8% of electricity demand coverage during 2014. The country has a very large wind power capability built up over many years and is one of the world leaders in wind power generation.
A National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) is a detailed report submitted by countries outlining commitments and initiatives to develop renewable energy that all member states of the European Union were obliged to notify to the European Commission by 30 June 2010. The plan provides a detailed road map of how the member state expects to reach its legally binding 2020 target for the share of renewable energy in their total energy consumption, as required by article 4 of the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC. In the plan, the member state sets out sectoral targets, the technology mix they expect to use, the trajectory they will follow, and the measures and reforms they will undertake to overcome the barriers to developing renewable energy.
In 2009, Poland was world's 9th largest hard coal producer. The country is also the second largest coal consumer in Europe behind Germany.
The German National Renewable Energy Action Plan is the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) for Germany. The plan was commissioned under EU Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC which required member states of the European Union to notify the European Commission with a road map. The report describes how Germany plans to achieve its legally binding target of an 18% share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy by 2020.
Renewable energy has developed rapidly in Italy over the past decade and provided the country a means of diversifying from its historical dependency on imported fuels. Solar energy production alone accounted for around 8% of the total electric production in the country in 2014, making Italy the country with the highest contribution from solar energy in the world. Rapid growth in the deployment of solar, wind and bio energy in recent years lead to Italy producing over 40% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2014.
Deploying Renewables 2011: Best and Future Policy Practice is a 2011 book by the International Energy Agency. The book analyses the recent successes in renewable energy, which now accounts for almost a fifth of all electricity produced worldwide, and addresses how countries can best capitalize on that growth to realise a sustainable energy future. The book says that renewable energy commercialization must be stepped up, especially given the world’s increasing appetite for energy and the need to meet this demand more efficiently and with low-carbon energy sources. Wind power and other renewable energy sources offer great potential to address issues of energy security and sustainability.
Despite the historic usage of wind power to drain water and grind grain, the Netherlands today lags behind most EU countries in the production of energy from renewable sources. The leading renewable sources in the country are biomass, wind, solar and both geothermal and aerothermal power.
In 2014, the Netherlands produced only 5.5% of its total energy from renewables, a small rise from 3.7% in 2010 and just 1% in 1990. Among the EU countries, only Malta and Luxembourg had lower percentages.
Under its commitment to the EU renewable energy directive of 2009, France has a target of producing 23% of its total energy needs from renewable energy by 2020. This figure breaks down to renewable energy providing 33% of energy used in the heating and cooling sector, 27% of the electricity sector and 10.5% in the transport sector. By the end of 2014, 14.3% of France's total energy requirements came from renewable energy, a rise from 9.6% in 2005.
Under the Renewable Energy Directive Ireland has set a target of producing 16% of all its energy needs from renewable energy sources by 2020. Between 2005 and 2014 the percentage of energy from renewable energy sources grew from just 3.1% to 8.6% of total final consumption. By 2020 Ireland has a target of producing 42.5% of its electricity needs from renewable sources.
Denmark is a world leading country in wind energy production and wind turbine production. In 2014 Denmark produced 57.4% of its net electricity generation from renewable energy sources. The Danish wind company Vestas Wind Systems A/S has expanded from its domestic base and by 2015 had a revenue of €8.423 billion, with more than 18,000 employees globally and manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, India, Italy, Romania, the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Australia, China, and the United States. Wind power alone produced 42.7% of Denmark's electricity production in 2014 and is expected to increase its production by nearly 80% in the years to 2024.
Biofuels play a major part in the renewable energy strategy of Denmark. Denmark is using biofuel to achieve its target of using 100% renewable energy for all energy uses by 2050. Biofuels provide a large share of energy sources in Denmark when considering all sectors of energy demand. In conjunction with Denmark's highly developed renewable energy resources in other areas, biofuels are helping Denmark meet its ambitious renewable energy targets.
