FROnT: Fair RESH&C Options and Trade, is a European project co-financed by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme.

The project aims at promoting a level playing field for Renewable Heating and Cooling in Europe; by identifying strategic policy priorities for RES-H&C, setting the framework for efficient and effective support schemes for RHC, and enhancing clear and transparent communication with European consumers.

The work will involve stakeholders from industry and public authorities from several EU members states and will be led by a consortium gathering representatives from industry and national energy agencies, assisted by partners providing specific expertise.

These include, from industry: AEBIOM (biomass), EGEC (geothermal), EHPA (aerothermal), ESTIF (solar thermal); from energy agencies: NL Agency (The Netherlands), KAPE (Poland), ADENE (Portugal), IDAE (Spain) and EST (UK); and experts: Eclareon (market, LCoE), AIT (technical, costs), Quercus (consumer, communication). The partners will assess recent and innovative support mechanisms to identify key success factors regarding designing, setting up and operating integrated support schemes for RHC, based on the value of the energy produced and involving different applications (residential, non-residential and industry).

FROnT will result in a greater understanding on how to deploy Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC) in the market. It will improve transparency about costs of heating and cooling options (using RHC or fossil fuels), RHC support schemes and consumer key decision factors..This knowledge will help towards developing Strategic Policy Priorities for RHC to be used by public authorities in designing and implementing better support mechanisms. It will also support the industry in engaging more effectively their prospective clients.

The outcomes of the project will include a commonly agreed methodology for defining the cost of H&C; a set of key success factors for RHC support schemes; analysis of key decision factors for consumers; adequate communication tools for a clear and transparent comparison of costs and features of different technologies; recommendations regarding flanking measures and a set of strategic policy recommendations.