Workshop on regional heating and cooling priorities and financing in the framework of the Smart Specialisation Platform (S3P-E H&C)

The report collects and summarises the content presented and discussed during the workshop on Smart Specialisation on Heating and Cooling, held in May 2018. This workshop was organised by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). It gathered 40 participants including regional representatives and experts in the heating and cooling field. The workshop offered the possibility of discussing how to achieve effective regional heating and cooling planning and how to fund projects by the uptake of the European Structural and Investment funds. Different examples were presented to inspire new projects in other regions. These examples tackled different aspects including technical, economic and social. After the workshop regions are willing to collaborate further and they found interesting synergies with the ongoing partnerships in the Smart Specialisation Platform on Energy (S3PEnergy).

Abstract

The workshop on smart specialisation on heating and cooling was organised by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), with the support of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER) and Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO). It was held in Brussels, in the Conference Centre Albert Borschette, between May 30th and June 1st 2018.

The Workshop was focused on two key topics: (1) regional heating and cooling priorities from technology and energy planning perspectives, and (2) heating and cooling financing.
The aim of the workshop was to understand the current state-of-play and the expected future of the heating and cooling (H&C) sector across EU regions, to discuss the role of regional authorities and their cooperation with national and EU entities on how to uptake the ESIF funds to decarbonise the heating and cooling sector — including barriers, opportunities and challenges.

The workshop was attended by 40 participants, 18 of them from the regional authorities and regional policy making bodies as regional energy agencies. The eight participating regions/countries were Sofia (Bulgaria), Bulgaria (country), North-East (Romania), Slovenia (country), Andalusia (Spain), Western Macedonia (Greece), Castile and Leon (Spain), Lubelskie (Poland).

Series

EUR - Conference and Workshop report by the Joint Research Centre