Renewables for Heating and Cooling: Untapped Potential – A joint report for the RETD and the REWP of the IEA
In April 2006 the IEA hosted a seminar “Renewable heating and cooling – from RD&D to deployment technology and policy” aimed at exploring guidelines and policy initiatives that could accelerate technology development and market deployment for renewable heating and cooling (REHC). The IEA Renewable Energy Working Party (REWP) and the related Bioenergy, Geothermal, and Solar Heating and Cooling Implementing Agreements agreed to collaborate in order to present the current status of technologies, markets and successful policies and to explore future technology and policy trends. The REWP then determined that REHC is of such high importance that it merited the preparation of a full IEA report, prepared by the IEA Renewable Energy Unit, and based on the presentations and the discussions of the workshop. Coincidentally a second report “Renewable energy technology in heating markets – Policy status” had been commissioned by the Implementing Agreement on Renewable Energy Technology Deployment (RETD; www.iea-retd.org). It was considered that it would be most useful for the potential readership of these two reports if they were combined into one. There was full agreement that a single report, with due acknowledgement of all authors and organisations involved in its preparation, would be the preference. This report is the result of merging the two original studies.
It aims to provide guidance to policy makers on how to successfully deploy renewable energies mainly for heating, but also for cooling purposes wherever appropriate. It is intended to be an informative paper for IEA member countries, for the RETD audience, and for non-member countries interested in meeting their heating and cooling demands using local renewable energy sources.
