Given recent market trends and policy initiatives, heat pumps stand to grow significantly in Europe over the coming years. shecco, recently an official member of the European Heat Pump Association, will be an important actor in the market.
While demand for heat pumps keeps growing in Europe, led by Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, France and Germany, relevant policy initiatives are currently under discussion by the EU Institutions. Several factors therefore point to an important growth of heat pump in Europe. shecco is also planning to step up efforts in the European market, and for this reason it has recently become an official member of the European Heat Pump Association.
Legislative drivers
Besides incentives at the national level, Heat pumps could be greatly boosted if they are considered a renewable source of energy under legislation currently being discussed by the European Institutions.
Early September, the European Parliament’s Industry Committee voted in favour of proposals that will consider all types of heat pumps as renewable, also including aerothermal, hydrothermal and geothermal energy sources. New rules could also promote, or oblige, the use of renewable technologies in new and existing buildings. The European Parliament Committee supports an overall target of 20% of energy in Europe coming from renewable sources by 2020.
This review of the Directive on Renewable Energy Sources (RES), could thus open the door to increased funding opportunities for all sorts of heat pumps, which can help to fast-track technological development and market uptake. Before becoming effective, however, the proposal still needs to be approved by the full Parliament before the end of the year, and later by the Council of the EU under the co-decision procedure.
European Heat Pump Association
On the other hand, in order to support the development of heat Pump technology, shecco has recently become an official member of the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA), the trade organization representing the interests of the European heat pump industry on international level. Within this organization, shecco is focusing especially on heat pumps using the natural refrigerant, CO2, which have additional advantages in terms of environmental impact and efficiency over conventional chemical refrigerants. Complementary to the activities within EHPA, shecco offers a range of marketing and communication services to support the deployment of CO2-based heat pump technology.
The European Heat Pump Association, founded in February 2000, is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes awareness and proper deployment of heat pump technology in the European market place for residential, commercial and industrial applications.