The Nordic Clean Energy Week took place in Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden in May. As part of the week, energy ministers from major economies across the globe met for the 9th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM9) and 3rd Mission Innovation (MI3) to accelerate the clean energy revolution. Some events relevant for heat pumping technologies are summarised in this article.


Arena for Sustainable Heating and Cooling
At the Arena for Sustainable Heating and Cooling representatives from industry, policy and research organizations met to discuss sustainable solutions for low carbon and fossil-free heating and cooling.

The success story of heat pumps in Sweden was described. Heat pumps are widely deployed in residential buildings and have lately also reached the markets for commercial and service buildings at a larger scale. The use of heat pumps is an important factor behind the 97 % reduction of oil consumption for space and domestic hot water heating since 1987. And even though heat pumps are electrically driven, the electricity consumption has decreased by 35 % since 1987.

In the Fossil-free Energy District project (FED), a smart district energy system will be demonstrated. It includes both heating, cooling and electricity. A digital market place will be introduced, where the actors within the district can trade in various energy flows. The project will study how to interact with local production, such as heat pumps, solar energy, bio-based combined heat and power plants, and how to use energy storage.

A concept for Decarbonizing of heating and cooling by a very low temperature thermal grid in combination with heat pumps was presented by utility company Eon. It is a small local low temperature thermal grid for heating and cooling, consisting of plastic pipes, similar to ordinary water pipes. The system includes interlinked heat pumps and cooling machines and can be connected to, e.g., a traditional district heating system. This system will help to transform the energy sector to more decentralised energy production.

The panel discussed what needs to be done to reach the two-degree scenario. Many of the technical solutions already exist, but they must be implemented. It is necessary to develop solutions that integrate various technologies, implement new business models, increase awareness of sustainable solutions, and update policies. Another challenge is fuel poverty. Sometimes taxes are not put on fossil fuel, since this could result in people not being able to afford heat. Therefore, clean heating and cooling solutions must become more affordable.

The session Making low carbon heating and cooling available for everyone was organized by the Heat pump Centre and the IEA HPT Network in collaboration with Mission Innovation. In this session, the project Comfort & Climate Box was presented. This Box will be an integrated cooling unit targeted for a large market. The aim is to construct a flexible solution that can be used by various types of residential buildings all over the world. For this to succeed the solution must be smart, efficient and reliable. And, not least, affordable. The Comfort and Climate Box is the very first project within the Mission Innovation Challenge #7, Affordable Heating and Cooling of Buildings. The project is a co-initiative between the Technology Collaboration Programmes on Heat Pumping Technologies (HPT TCP) and the one on Energy Storage (ECES).

The Arena sent the following key messages to the ministerial meeting:

• Put heating and cooling on the agenda!;
• Help us redefine the role of the utilities;
• New markets for new ideas are needed;
• Countries should report carbon footprint for heating and cooling and set up targets to be followed up;
• Demonstration is important for replication, in order to minimize the risk when implementing new innovations;
• Cross-cutting collaboration is important and necessary;
• The transition to sustainable heating and cooling is too slow; we need to focus on innovations.
  
  

Arena: Smart Grids – Unlocking the Renewable Energy Future
The Arena explored the future of smart grids. The Accelerating innovation for local energy grids discussed the foreseen central role of local energy grids in the energy system, where also heat pumps will be important. It was concluded that regulatory changes are necessary to enable innovations. However, the regulations and policies should be flexible enough to support, and not slow down, a transition to a smarter grid.

In the session Battery storage: transforming the power landscape, the implications of falling battery prices were discussed. Battery storage could be a cheaper and quicker solution than traditional grid investments. For example, installation of a 1 kWh battery per apartment reduces peak demand by 40 %. With a 3 kWh battery you could reduce it with 80%!

Finally, a panel consisting of business leaders, politicians, government agencies and academia shared their insights on how to speed up the transition to smart grids. The panel concluded that it is time to move on from the pilot phase of smart grids – we are ready for market expansion!
Altogether, the future for smart grids looks bright – and with heat pumps as part of the system the smart grids will meet their full potential.


Report from the Third Mission Innovation Ministerial in Malmö, Sweden
Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 22 countries and the European Commission partnering to revitalize and accelerate clean energy innovation. The third Mission Innovation Ministerial (MI-3) aimed at accelerating the pace of innovation and make clean energy widely affordable. The international community discussed actions to enhance public and private investment and collaboration on clean energy research and innovation.
The meeting marked the halfway point in Mission Innovation’s initial five-year commitment. A new action plan was created for the years 2018-2020. This sets out four goals with several ongoing and proposed key activities that will benefit from international collaboration:

1. A substantial boost in public-sector investment in clean energy R&D at the national level of MI members.
2. Increased private sector engagement and investment in energy innovation, particularly in key Innovation Challenges.
3. Many new or strengthened voluntary cross-border networks and partnerships on energy innovation, greater engagement from innovators, and accelerated progress in addressing specific Innovation Challenges (IC).
4. Greater awareness amongst MI members and the wider clean energy community of the transformational potential of energy innovation, the progress being made, and the remaining critical clean energy innovation gaps and opportunities.
   
   

Action taken for sustainable cooling
The event Delivering Sustainable Cooling in a Warming World was arranged by the International Energy Agency and the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program. It focused on how to deliver sustainable cooling in developing countries.
Fatih Birol, Executive Director at the IEA, stated that “Cooling is a blind spot in the international energy debate”. This is especially needed in developing countries and emerging markets, where a steadily increasing number of people can afford air conditioners.
The real challenge, as expressed by the panel members, is that the increased demand for cooling often is met with a supply of cheap products. The sustainability factor is rarely a base for the choice of product. Also, there is a need for standards that push the development in a sustainable direction. Naturally, standard cooling technologies have the same sustainability challenge as heat pumps for heating: the use of highly climate-potent F-gases.


Visions and solutions during the MI3 Solutions Summit
Among the solutions presented at the Solutions Summit were waste management and energy challenges in India and beyond, Estonia-based development of energy storage solutions based on graphene, carbon-free steel production, and a large-scale prototype of an airship for transport.
The Swiss visionary and explorer Bertrand Piccard – responsible for the first airplane circling the Earth without fuel – challenged the audience by stating that there is no urgent need for more innovation. Instead, immediate challenges can be met with innovations already made. He also aimed at challenging the idea on how innovations are created: “Innovation doesn’t come when you have more ideas, but when you have less beliefs”, indicating that in order for true innovation to happen you need to put aside all your ideas on what is possible and not.
Mr Iain Campbell, managing director at Rocky Mountain Institute, presented the Global Cooling Prize. He has seen that the AC industry does not develop the most energy efficient air conditioner, but rather the cheapest products that meet current regulations at important markets. The initiative seeks innovators to develop affordable cooling solutions that use only one fifth of the electric energy that the standard products of today use.


This text is shortened by HPC.

Read the full HPT Magazine here.