(14/02/06) EP vraagt Commissie voorstellen te doen over verwarming en koeling van gebouwen door hernieuwbare energiebronnen

• 2006-02-14

Energieverbruik in gebouwen is verantwoordelijk voor 40% van het totale energiegebruik in Europa. De energie-efficiëntie van gebouwen moet omhoog en verwarmingsinstallaties en airco's moeten gevoed worden door hernieuwbare energie. Dat vindt een grote meerderheid van de EP-leden. Zij vragen de Commissie met voorstellen te komen.

Heating and cooling from renewable energy sources

The European Parliament sends a strong signal to the Commission

Today the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament joined by an overwhelming majority of Members of Parliament voted a legislative initiative requesting the Commission to fill the legislative gap on the promotion of renewable energy sources.

While the EU has already adopted 2010 indicative targets for electricity produced by renewable sources of energy (21.0% of the EU-25 total electricity) as well as for biofuels (5.75% of the transportation fuel), the missing sector has been the production of energy for heating and air-conditioning from these sources (solar thermal, geothermal or biomass). This newly adopted EP's report requests the Commission to submit a Directive on heating and cooling from renewable energy sources.

The building sector represents 40% of total energy use in the EU. One of Europe's biggest and cheapest steps to achieve greater security of supply, as well as objectives for climate change, involves replacing heating and cooling appliances with ones based on renewable energy sources, together with increasing the energy performance of existing buildings.

Green MEP Claude Turmes, vice-president of the Greens/EFA said:

"What we need to replicate at European scale are the positive examples set in certain European regions. In the Bundesland "Oberösterreich" (upper Austria) a successful 10 years program has brought down the proportion of oil boilers in new buildings from 70% to less than 3%. Well insulated buildings heated with wood, geothermal or solar devices are not only good for climate and security of supply but creates also local added value by replacing cheques to Saudi Arabia and Russia by indigenous fuels and job creation."

"For Southern Europe, cooling is key. Beneath better building regulations that diminish the needs for cooling, new renewables technologies like solar cooling are crucial to reduce emissions pollution which are the basis of the potential failure of Spain, Portugal and Italy of their Kyoto targets."

The potential of renewable heating and cooling is estimated in various studies to be around 25 to 30% of the total energy in 2020, depending on what Europe can also achieve in accelerating the renovation of existing building stock and raising standards for new housing in order to diminish the need for heating and cooling houses.

Turmes concluded: "The European Parliament sent today a strong signal to the Commission to come with a serious proposal for a Directive. It must definitely contain binding requirement in line with our Kyoto objectives. There is no time to waste. No doubt that 25% of the whole EU-25 energy demand for heating and cooling could come in 2020 form renewable sources of energy. Let's hope that Barosso will not fail again."