Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for Renewable ... - EGEC

RenewableHeating & CoolingEuropean Technology Platform2.5 SRA Governing PrinciplesThis Strategic Research Agenda is the first of its kind for the renewable heating and coolingsector. It provides stakeholders with a structured and comprehensive view of the strategicresearch priorities to enable an increasing share of heating and cooling to be supplied byRES. The contribution of renewable heating and cooling to the EU energy targets by 2020 andbeyond will be determined by the availability of reliable, efficient and affordable technology.Growing the market for renewable heating and cooling applications, achieving significantbreakthroughs through targeted, collaborative research and development activities inRHC technology are all prerequisites for the achievement on time of the European Union’sobjectives.This publication provides recommendations to policy makers, funding bodies as wellas to industry and research stakeholders on how to prioritise the allocation of resources forresearch, development and demonstration (R&D&D) of renewable heating and cooling systems.In particular, the SRA can be used as input for the identification of the most appropriate areasto fund under Horizon 2020, the successor programme to the Seventh Framework Programmefor Research and Development of the European Union.The report is built on five “Governing Principles” which form the basic set of fundamentalassumptions:I. Time scale.It is important to fund R&D work now that will have an impact in different time framesto ensure a continual supply of new ideas to the sector. The report distinguishes betweenthree timelines by when the results from the R&D work covered in the RHC-SRA shouldbe commercially available:• By 2020: Short term 21• By 2030: Medium term• After 2030: Long termThe convention used in this report is to refer strategic and research priorities tothe time horizon in which they are first expected to be used in commercial products,not to the year by which widespread use is expected 22 .II. InclusivenessTechnologies for renewable heating and cooling include a wide range of energycomponents, applications and infrastructures. This SRA aims at being ascomprehensive as possible, on the assumption that a single energy technology cannotemerge as the ultimate solution to Europe’s energy challenges. The report expressesoverall research and development objectives and where possible it sets specific targets,however it is beyond the scope of the SRA to pick winners. Moreover, the targetspresented in this report should not be interpreted as predictions. It is possible that sometechnologies will even exceed them. The efficiency gains and cost reductions weredefined on the basis of rational expectations and opinions of the SRA’s authors. Furthereditions of the SRA will be produced every five years to reflect the technological progressin the renewable heating and cooling sector.21This time period was chosenbecause EU targets for renewableenergy, energy efficiencyand CO 2 reduction alreadyexist for 2020.22It should be noted that severalresearch priorities presentedin Chapter 3.3 refer to technologicalachievements whichmay have already been testedat pilot scale. District heatingand cooling systems arewidely diverse across Europe,and it is therefore opportuneto refer their priorities to theyear by when most infrastructuresin Europe have attainedthe performance targets.III. Value chain approach and scale of Technology Readiness LevelsPublic and private money is required to perform the short, medium and long termresearch into all parts of the value chain, as well as non-technological priorities.To realise the potential of the RHC-Platform’s Common Vision, activities of fundamentalresearch, development and demonstration are necessary depending onthe specific technological maturity of the relevant component or system. This reportrecommends that the combined spending of the public and private sector shouldbe strategically distributed among topics with commercial relevance in the short,medium and long term, covering the scale of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) frompoint 1 to point 9 (Fig. 8).11