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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.

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.

Best practice policy design and harmonisation of support schemes for electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) within the European Union have been discussed controversially for years. In contrast, policies for improving renewable heating (RES-H) penetration in the European Member States and options for best practice instruments are still being developed. The objective of this paper is to analyse different levels of policy harmonisation for target compliance and the economics of renewable heating and cooling. After presenting the degree of RES-H policy harmonisation resulting from Directive 2009/28/EC , a quantitative assessment is performed of the costs and benefits of different harmonisation scenarios. This selects the obligation to use renewable heating in buildings as the common policy instrument against which the effects of harmonisation are analysed. The paper shows that economic benefits can result from implementing best practice design options for use obligations in EU Member States.

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.