The European renewable industry is a competitive sector, even though some market barriers still needs to be addressed. To have an analysis on the impact of this sector in the European economy and understand the dynamics among different renewable technologies, the Brussels-based think tank CEPS and the Danish consultancy COWI have conducted a study for DG ENER of the European Commission on the competitiveness of the renewable energy sector.

To present and discuss the results of the final report, CEPS hosted a stakeholder workshop in Brussels on October 8th. The first part of the event focused on corporate responsibility, and perceived and existing barriers to renewables development.

During the afternoon, the 4 case studies on renewable heating and cooling were presented and the session highlighted the role of governments and local and regional authorities in enabling renewable solutions in this sector. Christian Stadler, Managing Director at Arcon-Sunmark stressed that to achieve a real transition several technologies, including solar thermal, will be necessary. To this end, he also presented the largest solar district heating system in the world: the Silkeborg plant.

📢 Christian Stadler from Arcon-Sunmark presenting the largest #solar #districtheating in the word, the Silkeborg plant. “We need a mix of different solutions to achieve the sustainable transition” #SolarHeat ☀️ is a proven and effective one, already available in the market pic.twitter.com/F9dHFxnNok

— Irene di Padua (@irenedipadua) October 8, 2019

Solar Heat Europe, which cooperated in the drafting of the final report, attended the meeting and highlighted the need for an adequate legislative framework setting some key targets as for example:

• A 3% threshold for locally generated renewables in the industrial sector
• A priority dispatch for renewable heat solutions when the renewables amount in a district heating network is less than 40%

Presentations of the conference:

Corporate sourcing of Renewable Energy by Felice Simonelli, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Policy Evaluation, CEPS

• Corporate sourcing in Europe by Bruce Douglas, Coordinator, RE-Source Platform
• Corporate Sourcing of Renewable Energy by Cillian O’Donoghue, Energy and Climate Manager, Eurometaux
• Renewable Energy at Google by Devon Swezey, Global Energy Market Development and Policy, Google

Competitiveness of the renewable heating and cooling industry by Ivo Georgiev, Project Manager, Energy, Strategy and Sustainability, COWI

• We harvest the sun! by Christian Stadler, Managing Director, Arcon-Sunmark
• Geothermal energy by Estelle Petitclerc, Researcher, Geologist, Geothermal energy, Geological Survey of Belgium, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
• The competitiveness of renewable heating & cooling by Martin Forsen, International Affairs, NIBE Climate solutions

About the “Competitiveness of the Renewable Energy Sector” study

The firs part of the study focuses on the renewable heating and cooling industry and covers four main segments which provides a major contribution in terms of jobs and market growth in the EU economy: biogas, biomass, heat pumps and solar thermal. However, policy measures are still needed to fully deploy renewable heating and cooling solutions. The study also addresses the corporate sourcing of renewables, looking into drivers and constraints in this field.

Find more about it information about it here and contact us at info@solarheateurope.eu for any further inquiries.