No hot air! The potential of waste heat for decarbonising industry, cities, and buildings

Heating and cooling represent half of the EU's final energy consumption. Roughly 80% is based on fossil fuels, mostly imported. The heat transition is therefore key to achieve our climate goals and energy security.

Both heat pumps and district energy are important net-zero solutions to decarbonise heating and recover waste heat from industrial processes and buildings. The Heat Roadmap Europe project estimated that excess heat in the EU amounts to 245 Mtoe/year, almost corresponding to the EU’s total energy demand for heat and hot water in residential and service sector buildings. There is also a large potential for on-site heat recovery in the industry.  

However, while net-zero technologies are readily available, there is still market inertia. The session sheds light on how to make the most of these net-zero solutions to harvest the waste heat potential for the benefit of the environment and consumers. The target audience is broad since this concerns all of us. The revised FF55 package includes a range of provisions to boost waste heat recovery in district heating and cooling networks, e.g. the obligation for data centres to use their waste heat. RED and EED recognise the potential of waste heat and enable Member States to count it towards sectoral targets. There is a vast amount of on-site waste heat recovery potential that remains untapped and is not covered in EU legislation.  

Speakers

• Andrea Voigt, Head of Global Public Affairs & Sustainability, Danfoss
• Pauline Lucas, Policy Director, Euroheat & Power
• Valerio Forconi, Director, Government Relations and Public Policy EMEA, Trane Technologies
• Victor Ferré, Senior Director of Vertical Marketing for Building Solutions, Xylem Europe
• Arthur Hinsch, Senior Expert, Sustainable Energy Systems, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives Europe
• Anne Katherina Weidenbach, Policy Assistant, Energy Commissioner Cabinet 

Agenda

• Welcome and scene setting (5 min): Pauline Lucas, Policy Director, Euroheat & Power 
• Slido questions to the audience (5 min): on waste heat and link to their concrete lives  
• Presentations on waste heat recovery cases: (20 min) 
  • Water-energy nexus case by Victor Ferré, Xylem (5 min) 
  • Sonderborg, DK, Hospital and Supermarket case by Andrea Voigt, Danfoss (5 min) 
  • Chocolate factory case by Valeria Forconi, Trane (5 min) 
  • Slido Interaction with the audience (5 min) 
• Panel (50 min): including Slido Q&A of 10 min  
  • Moderator: Pauline Lucas, Policy Director, Euroheat & Power 
  • Andrea Voigt, Head of Global Public Affairs, Danfoss 
  • Anne Katherina Weidenbach, European Commission, Cabinet Member of Commissioner Simson 
  • Arthur Hinsch, Senior Expert, Sustainable Energy Systems, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives Europe
  • Valerio Forconi, Director, Government Relations and Public Policy EMEA, Trane Technologies
  • Victor Ferré, Senior Director, Xylem 
• Wrap up (10 min): Pauline Lucas