We have talked here before of how the European Union's heating and cooling strategy — currently out for consultation — could be a driver for bringing the respective industries closer together for the common good of energy reduction.
Now, the European Partnership for Energy and the Environment (EPEE), which represents the heating, cooling and refrigeration industry in Europe, has published a white paper with a series of recommendations for how it believes the strategy can be made even more effective.
In introducing its position paper, EPEE notes it strongly supports the "energy efficiency first" principle, which is essential to achieve the EU's energy and climate goals. With heating and cooling projected in the long term as the EU's biggest energy-consuming sector, EPEE's members are well placed to significantly increase energy efficiency, limit energy demand, and reduce energy consumption through technology.
Further, EPEE notes that Europe's 2020 target for a 20 percent energy reduction has now been updated to an indicative 27 percent target for 2030. However, new technologies and cost-effective savings potential suggest a more ambitious 2030 target could be adopted — up to 40 percent as called for by the European Parliament.
EPEE believes taking a more holistic approach to what is already on the statute book in Europe for buildings, products and end-use can kick-start the targets. Legislation such as the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and the Renewable Energies Directive (RED) can be better utilized by taking the three as an integrated whole, it says.
"There are a number of ways to increase the energy efficiency of heating and cooling. The most obvious solution is the setting of energy efficiency requirements at product level, as stipulated by the Ecodesign Directive," the EPEE paper states. "However, even the most energy-efficient products will not lead to energy savings if the wrong type of equipment is chosen for a building, or if the heating and cooling system has not been planned to operate in the most effective way. This includes properly sizing, installing, controlling and maintaining products.
"Proper maintenance and control, therefore, seem to be the first and most obvious steps to improve the energy performance of buildings."
EPEE uses the example provided by French consultant Cardonnel Ingéniérie, which has demonstrated that replacing thermal heating and cooling equipment can result in energy savings of 25 to 40 percent, combined with payback times of 5 to 10 years (depending on the type of the building). Upgrading the envelope of the same buildings requires payback times of 24 to 28 years — although the energy savings could be as high as 40 to 50 percent.
The body concludes: "These findings highlight the importance of ensuring that measures to improve the energy performance of buildings should not focus on the building envelope only, but should include all elements and technical systems in a building."
EPEE also makes a series of recommendations to strengthen the current Energy Performance in Buildings legislation, to widen it beyond the building envelope and include requirements on constant monitoring, maintenance and optimization of the heating and cooling systems. At the same time, it urges expanding the parallel Energy Efficiency Directive to have more emphasis on maintenance, and more encouragement to build on the results of required energy audits.
EPEE wants cross-referencing between the two laws and significantly ensuring that the requirements are mandatory (of course, this will then require proper enforcement, which is a weak area for the EU historically).
Perhaps more significantly for the perspective of those reading in the U.S., EPEE makes a series of further recommendations, looking to the longer term, which it calls "a holistic framework for buildings to unleash their energy-savings potential."
EPEE says it is "convinced that there is scope to go much further," and it focuses on three main components, namely:
Component one, it says should see better integration of the distinct heating and cooling technologies.
"Fitting energy-efficient technologies without coordinating their functions (i.e. through automation control systems) is not sufficient to minimize the building's total energy input," the report states. "It is essential that legislation takes into account the efficiency of the whole building system. Future legislation related to buildings' energy efficiency should take a holistic approach, encouraging building management systems to run heating and cooling systems efficiently, whilst taking into account the habits of the occupants."
This requires a link between the EPBD in its current form looking at the building envelope only and the Ecodesign legislation which looks at products — particularly the ongoing work on smart appliances. It proposes a framework that sets rules for maximizing the energy performance of buildings, "where each building would be considered as a system composed of active and passive elements and with energy inputs, useful energy outputs and energy losses to be minimized."
EPEE's crucial point is that new technology is not required to achieve this, but rather a fine-tuning and coordination of existing technologies.
The second component is a wholesale expansion of the current approach to district heating and cooling, requiring "thinking beyond the building" when it comes to energy.
"This means that buildings would need to be considered as a key element of the energy infrastructure (for energy transmission and for energy storage) with heating and cooling demand being at the core of long-term planning," EPEE says. "It is only by understanding the unique role that buildings can play in balancing energy supply and demand that we can ensure a) efficient energy use in buildings — without making concessions to comfort and healthy indoor climate requirements — and b) flexible use of energy by consumers — district heating and cooling providing readily for demand response mechanisms."
This, the body says, could be further extended by approaching buildings as clusters, with networked heating and cooling, rather than treating each building individually.
The final component for EPEE is to ramp up the influence of renewable energy technologies such as through onsite energy production — CHP, heat pumps and the like.
"The advantage of on-site production of renewable energy is that it relieves burdens from the electricity infrastructure, while also guaranteeing delivery of energy without interruption, thus increasing supply reliability," the report states.
On-site energy storage has the same benefits, it notes.
Once again, EPEE suggests taking the concept a step further: "Decentralized systems could even be included into thermal networks, which would empower the consumer to help share cooling and heating capacities, be it on a local level or on the level of building clusters. Again, this would be a great opportunity to increase efficiency and flexibility while reducing investment in large central heating and cooling plant."
EPEE draws its position together with a snappy soundbite: What Europe needs is not just one policy instrument, but a whole orchestra. The conclusion is pretty bullish for a body that has to regularly move in Brussels corridors:
"Europe's orchestra is already well-equipped and now needs more practice, discipline and good governance to be really successful. The energy future of Europe requires visionary steps: where the energy market design provides incentives for both suppliers and users to provide flexibility for a more efficient use of energy; where buildings are no longer considered as individual buildings and as integral parts of the energy system, helping to effectively balance energy supply and demand; and where renewable energies are no longer seen as one of many energy sources but as the most important energy source.
"And all of this integrated into an overall supply structure where decentralized technologies and thermal networks complement each other, rather than compete.”
For anyone looking to build an integrated heating and cooling future, that could serve pretty much as a manifesto. Perhaps U.S. industry — and policymakers — will take inspiration.
