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This paper presents an overview of policy frameworks for district heating (DH) in Europe. We develop a classification for policy aspects addressing DH, comprising regulation of ownership, prices, metering, consumer grid connection, third party access as well as support schemes and carbon taxes. This classification builds on existing literature and expert assessments collected in an online survey and interviews. The relevance of the paper lies in giving a comprehensive picture of the existing policy frameworks for DH in 23 European countries. For the overview, the countries are clustered along assigned categories. It is shown that the policy frameworks for DH can be clustered into five distinguishable groups. While some countries apply very strict regulations in special DH laws, others rely on less regulatory intervention, both with varying degrees of support for DH in place. The different policy frameworks are discussed in the context of the diffusion of DH and the integration of renewable and waste heat in DH. This analysis shows that high shares of DH and high shares of renewable and waste heat in DH can be observed in countries with a high degree of regulation as well as in countries with less regulatory intervention in DH markets.

District heating (DH) can become a key infrastructure for achieving climate targets in the heating sector. In order to support the uptake of renewables in the DH sector, the European Commission proposed to open DH infrastructures to third parties. This will allow independent heat producers to supply heat produced from renewable energy sources and from waste heat to consumers connected to the grid. This paper develops a better understanding of the complexity associated with the introduction of third party grid access (TPA). We will analyse the heterogeneous institutional set-up of DH markets in the EU and discuss competition and market boundaries in the heat market. Based on this, the paper investigates the technical, regulatory and economic challenges that arise from the practical implementation of TPA. We conclude that TPA alone will not be sufficient to support the expansion of renewables in the DH sector. Complementary policy measures will be necessary to transform the DH sector towards 4th generation DH systems that will become an integrated element of a smart energy system.

The EU Renewable Energy Directive (RES-Directive) establishes a policy framework for the promotion of renewable energy in the EU. Under the framework of the RES-Directive, EU Member States have adopted national renewable energy action plans including sectorial targets for electricity, heating and cooling, and transport. While the RES-Directive outlines the methodology for calculating the renewable energy shares for electricity, heating and transport, it does not offer any indications on how to account for renewable cooling. Due to the lacking methodological guidelines, Member States can currently not report renewable cooling and cooling does therefore not play a role for target achievement. At the same time, the energy demand for cooling is growing rapidly and the inclusion of renewable cooling can potentially have a large impact on the renewable energy shares that Member States report. Based on an overview of available cooling technologies, this article explores various strategies for including cooling in the RES-Directive and investigates the impact on target achievement. We find that the potential impact of including cooling is considerable and conclude that ambitious minimum efficiency requirements are needed in order to maintain the ambition of the RES-Directive and to stimulate the development of policies to support low-carbon cooling technologies.

In order to contribute to the German Energiewende (energy transition) adequately, the building sector has to be almost completely decarbonised in the long term. Our analysis investigates how the German building stock can be transformed into a nearly climate-neutral state by 2050. Using a stock modelling approach based on a typology of the German residential and non-residential building sector, we develop different visions (target states) of what a nearly climate-neutral building stock could look like. All developed target states achieve the overall goal of reducing the non-renewable primary energy demand in 2050 by at least 80%. In order to span a broad target corridor, the target states differ in the two central target dimensions: efficiency (reduction in final energy demand) and energy/technology supply mix (especially the herein contained share of renewable energies). Additionally, using the energy system model REMod-D, the interactions of the building stock with the energy system as a whole are investigated. We explore the differences between a target state focussing on efficiency measures and a target state where efficiency is partly compensated for by an increased use of renewable energies. We learn that from a private cost perspective no clear recommendation can be derived as to which target state should be given priority. This means that other criteria become more relevant, such as social acceptance regarding the different measures, or the challenges that arise from rolling out additional renewable energy capacity on top of what is necessary to achieve the climate goals in other sectors.

While it is widely acknowledged that carbon pricing plays an important role in driving the transition towards a low-carbon energy system, its interaction with complementary instruments is discussed controversially. The analysis of combining carbon pricing with complementary policies has been mostly focused on the electricity sector, while the role of carbon pricing in the buildings sector has received only minor interest. In view of the newly introduced carbon pricing scheme for the buildings and transport sector in Germany, we analyze the interactions between the carbon pricing scheme with the existing policy instruments and assess the consistency of the policy mix for decarbonizing the buildings sector. Our analysis finds that the introduction of carbon pricing has a reinforcing effect on the instrument mix and adds to the consistency of the policy mix. The results highlight the importance of complementary policies in order to achieve deep decarbonization in the buildings sector. We conclude that carbon pricing, preferably implemented as a tax with a predictable and increasing price level, needs to be supplemented with a powerful mix of complementary measures.

Renewable energy sources of heat offer the substantial economic, environmental and social benefits associated with renewable electricity but policy to support their expansion is considerably less advanced. The potential for applying various support instruments to renewable heat is considered with advantages and disadvantages discussed. (c) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

In order to limit global warming to 2 °C, industrialised countries like Germany are obliged to de-carbonise their energy systems extensively by the middle of the century. The building sector – particularly the building stock – plays a pivotal role in the long-term climate protection strategies for Germany. Key control variables in this context are building standards, heat supply technologies and the sector allocation of limited renewable energy potentials. Based on existing normative long-term scenarios for the heating sector and using the residential building sector as a case study, this article assesses the current German policy framework for the building sector against the modelled long-term development needs.

At present, expanding the use of renewable energy sources for heating (RES-H) relies predominantly on publicly funded support instruments. As these are subject to subsidy cuts and suspensions, these instruments do not provide long-term security for investors and technology suppliers. Although feed-in tariffs and quota-based systems are the major support schemes for renewable energy sources in the electricity sector, similar policy designs have not been applied to RES-H. This paper presents and evaluates three different policy instruments which have the potential to finance RES-H without using public funds: A physical quota system for biomass, a technology-based quota system ( Portfolio Model) and a remuneration-based system ( Premium model). The assessment suggests that while the Portfolio Model and the Premium Model are both promising policies to enhance RES-H deployment, there is greater acceptance among stakeholders for the Premium Model.

In order to achieve national or EU-wide energy efficiency targets, a variety of policies is available. Apart from the traditional set of regulative, financial, fiscal and informative instruments, market-oriented instruments as e.g. energy efficiency obligations (EEOs) become more and more important. The new EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) even suggests EEOs as the preferred instrument for promoting energy efficiency in all Member States. Their actual impact, however, depends highly on the national framework. With a multi-criteria, semi-quantitative approach we evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these instruments, taking Germany as an example. The evaluation shows that none of the instruments alone can achieve the prescribed energy efficiency targets, but that a mix of instruments is necessary. The possibility of a budget-independence of the funding in particular supports a supplementary deployment of new market-oriented instruments such as an EEO as part of the future mix of policy instruments in Germany.

This paper compares two flagship policies in the area of energy efficient building refurbishment, the German CO2-Building Rehabilitation Programme and the Green Deal in the UK. Although both policies are essentially loan programmes to finance energy efficiency measures, the nature of the two policies is very different regarding scope, financial architecture, integration with other policies, and carbon reductions. The paper draws out the main differences of the programmes as well as similarities.

This article describes and evaluates a number of different financial support instruments for the energy refurbishment of the building stock based on the example of Germany. The key focus is on policy instruments which are not counter-financed by public budgets or where, by other means, investment and planning security for investors is assured. Through such instruments the typical disadvantages of public budget-financed support programs (e.g. insufficient support funds, frequent changes to support conditions) should be alleviated. Five different policy instruments are examined in terms of their legal viability and evaluated according to functionality criteria. The article closes with a recommended time frame for the implementation of an effective set of policy instruments.

Der Stromverbrauch privater Haushalte tragt in Deutschland mehr als 10 % der energiebedingten CO2-Emissionen bei. Trotz erheblicher Verbesserungen beispielsweise bei der Effizienz von Haushaltsgeraten finden sich gerade in diesem Verbrauchssegment nach wie vor betrachtliche Stromsparpotenziale. Entsprechend gros ist der mogliche Klimaschutzbeitrag des Haushaltssektors.

Gaseous nitric acid (HNO3) and hydrogene fluoride (HF) have been measured in the winter Arctic stratosphere using balloon- and aircraft-based Ion Molecule Reaction Mass Spectrometry (IMRMS) instruments. Strong HNO3 perturbations were found in 1993 and 1995 which may indicate nitrification around 11-13 km and denitrification around 20 km altitude. Most likely these perturbations were caused by sedimentation of HNO3 containing aerosols followed by aerosol evaporation at lower altitudes.

The 2020 RES-targets of the EU until 2020 require substantial growth of RES-technologies and sectors. Solar thermal energy can provide an increasing share of this amount, in particular looking on the period beyond 2020. However, this will need corresponding ambitious policy instruments and support. This paper provides scenarios for solar thermal energy in selected European countries (AT, GR, LT, NL, PL, UK) up to 2030. A techno-economic bottom-up model is applied for simulating the impact of different policy instruments (and design options of these instruments). In particular, the focus is on the following policy instruments: economic incentives and RES-Heat obligations. The results are based on a comparison of these different scenarios and provide insight into barriers, challenges and opportunities for solar thermal energy in the selected regions. The paper ends with discussions regarding the role of the solar thermal targets in NREAPs and provides conclusions for the design of solar thermal support instruments. The paper is based on the work done within the IEE project RES-H Policy (www.res-h-policy.eu).

Whereas the contribution from renewable energies in the electrical power market is increasing rapidly, similar progress in the heat market is yet to be made. A prerequisite for progress is the development of innovative support instruments that transcend the usual support through public subsidies or tax reductions. We present an overview of the various classes of possible instruments. Some particularly interesting instruments will be selected and evaluated, comparing them qualitatively and quantitatively for the case of Germany. The most favourable model is found to be a new, allocation-financed 1 model known as the Bonus Model. This model will be described in more detail.

Florian Wetzig fragte in der letzten Ausgabe, ob Ökostrom eine sinnvolle Ergänzung zum Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz sei. Er sprach sich gegen den Kauf von Ökostrom aus. Doch seine Kritik greift zu kurz. Hochwertige Ökostromprodukte schützen die Umwelt über die gesetzliche Förderung erneuerbarer En­ergien hinaus.