The European Commission (EC) is finalising recommendations on heating and cooling with an intention to update EU energy legislation and possibly draft new directives. Currently heating and cooling account for around 40% of European Union energy consumption, but are only indirectly targeted by existing EU policies, which focus more on power production with renewable energy.
Renewable energy already accounts for 26% of electricity production in the EU but just 16.4% of heating and cooling. EC estimates that half of Europe's heat demand is in areas where population density is high enough for district heating infrastructure, which would be more efficient than alternatives and could cover 40% to 70% of EU heat demand. Read more at http://www.euractiv.com
