Brussels, 2 June 2014 – The EU renewable heating and cooling sector welcomes the relevance given to renewable heating in the Communication on Energy Security strategy, just published by the European Commission.

The European Commission has now published its Communication on Energy Security, which proposes a set of immediate actions to address the current crisis but mostly concentrates on other measures to be implemented in the longer term. The proposed measures include moderating energy demand, as well as increasing energy production and developing energy technologies in the EU.

AEBIOM, EGEC and ESTIF, the industry associations representing the biomass, geothermal and solar thermal sectors respectively, welcome the relevance given to renewable heating in the Commission’s strategy.

“The current security of supply emergency is mainly a heating crisis”, said Jean-Marc Jossart, Secretary General of AEBIOM. “The renewed concerns for our security of supply lie in the EU’s heavy dependency on energy imports, mostly used for heating purposes in the residential, services and industrial sector, which can be replaced with renewable sources”, he added.

“It is very positive that the strategy highlights the need to increase energy production in the European Union, namely by using indigenous resources such as renewable energy”, mentioned Pedro Dias, Secretary General of ESTIF. He continued: “In particular, we welcome the European Commission’s proposal that Member States accelerate fuel switch in the heating sector to renewable heating technologies, as one of the key actions to be implemented.”

“We must remember that our societal challenges go beyond energy security, they include providing affordable heat and securing a sustainable future”, said Philippe Dumas, Secretary General of EGEC. He added: “According to projections from the industry, the EU could reach a 25% share of renewables in the heating and cooling sector by 2020.  At the current average import prices for natural gas, this would save the EU as much as €21 bn annually!”

AEBIOM, EGEC and ESTIF have recently released a position paper: “Renewables for heating and cooling and EU security of supply: Save over 20 billion Euros annually in reduced fossil fuel imports”.

 

www.aebiom.org   AEBIOM is the European Biomass Association, representing the bioenergy sector in Europe. The main aim of AEBIOM is to develop the market for sustainable bioenergy such as bio heat, electricity from biomass and biofuels (including biogas).	www.egec.org   EGEC is the European Geothermal Energy Council, an international non-profit association, whose aim is to promote the use of geothermal energy in Europe	www.estif.org   ESTIF is the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation representing the whole value chain of solar thermal from research and testing to manufacturers and service providers
Press contacts:
Anamaria Olaru olaru(at)aebiom.org	Alexandra Latham a.latham(at)egec.org	Theresa Doetsch Theresa.Doetsch(at)estif.org

 

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