Today, the European Commission presented the report on the State of the Energy Union 2024. Whilst fully supporting the objectives of the EU towards more energy independence to achieve climate goals and preserve citizens’ comfort and industry’s ability to continue producing in Europe, the solar heat sector calls on more priority to be given to the heat decarbonisation agenda and a stronger support to EU-made cleantech such as solar heat.
Solar Heat Europe acknowledges today the release of the State of the Energy Union report, and fully supports the EU’s ambition to ensure competitiveness, security and decarbonisation towards climate neutrality by 2050. Unprecedented efforts have been achieved during the last 5 years under particularly difficult and regrettable geo-political situations. Solar Heat Europe and its members welcomed the various components of the Fit for 55 legislative package, in particular the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive with its solar mandate, encouraging the roll-out of all solar technologies on rooftops. A successful implementation of this package is now key at national level.
However, Solar Heat Europe alerts the worrying and continuing lack of attention given to heating and cooling (H&C) overall and to its technology, solar heat, in particular. With H&C accounting for half of the EU’s energy consumption, EU policymakers cannot continue to disregard the role and importance of renewable heating and cooling technologies, such as solar thermal. This massive energy use is a sine qua non pillar to achieve a successful delivery of the objectives of the Energy Union.
The report highlights that the progress in the uptake of renewable energy in heating and cooling was “modest” compared to the electricity sector, growing from 18.6% in 2012 to 24.9% in 2022. Yet, no dedicated actions were taken to fast track the decarbonisation of the heat sector, and the vast potential of renewable heating sources such as solar thermal, proudly manufactured in Europe, remains untapped.
More can and must be done, starting from the still ongoing revision of the NECPs, where too a greater focus must be put on heat decarbonisation. The emphasis on decentralised supply and on heating and cooling, the interaction between national and local authorities, the effective implementation of the provision on renewable heat supply to buildings, districts, and industry are of paramount importance for the successful energy transition in Europe towards a clean, secure and affordable energy supply.
Energy security and EU-made clean tech with Solar Heat
The competitiveness of the European clean tech industry is an integral part of the Energy Union being instrumental to achieving its objectives in terms of energy security and decarbonisation.
On the one hand, the EU must scale up its manufacturing capacity for all net-zero technologies, including the ones where the EU suffers severe strategic dependencies, to meet the rising demand resulting from the EU’s climate ambitions. On the other hand, the EU must take decisive actions to incentivise a faster deployment of net-zero technologies that are already manufactured in Europe – in line with the recommendations of the Draghi report to focus “on technologies where [the EU] either has a lead or where there is a strategic case for developing domestic capacity”.
“The Solar Thermal sector definitely has its role to play in the energy transition and must gain more political support. We are proud to have a strong European manufacturing base in solar thermal technologies. The sector supplies over 90% of the domestic demand and has a positive trade balance. The NZIA is a promising first step to support EU-made cleantech, but immediate and resolute actions are needed to stimulate demand, especially in the heating and cooling sector” stated Valérie Séjourné, Managing Director of Solar Heat Europe.
Decentralised energy supplies supporting infrastructure and grids
As highlighted by the report, as electrification progresses it is critical to avoid that the capacity of the electricity grid becomes a bottleneck. While grid expansion is absolutely necessary, it is lengthy and costly. We need to take immediate action to complement this process, by a enabling a faster deployment of all renewable solutions, particularly those with decentralised heat generation, as they can help alleviate the burden on the grid. Solar heat is a concrete example of these complementary options, as solar thermal technologies are not only independent from the grid, but they also integrate thermal energy storage by default, which offers great potential for demand-side flexibility and can also help efficiencies with other clean technologies.
About Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF:
Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF’s mission is to promote solar heat as a key technology for the decarbonisation of heating and cooling in Europe and to realise the high potential of solar heat in the energy transition. With members in more than 15 European countries, Solar Heat Europe members cover different parts of the value chain, being based in countries as diverse as Finland or Cyprus.
Contact:
| Valérie Séjourné Managing Director valerie.sejourne@solarheateurope.eu Tel: +32 471 34 19 24 | Anna Ledro Communications and Events Officer anna.ledro@solarheateurope.eu Tel: +32 2 318 40 59 |