Recent data from the European Commission illustrates that the EU as a whole can surpass its established 2020 target by a close 0.3%. Yet, some Member States are having difficulty in achieving their individual targets set out in December 2008.  EPEE believes Member States should include heat pumps both in their National Renewable Energy Action Plans, as well as in their National Energy Efficiency Action Plans.

In December 2008 the EU’s 27 Member States decided that renewable sources of energy should account for 20% of the EU’s energy mix by 2020. To meet their individual national targets within this overall goal, Member States set out a National Renewable Energy Action Plan in 2009 which defines how much renewable energy must be part of the overall energy consumption in transport, electricity and heating and cooling by 2020.

Besides the benefit of considerably reducing CO2-emissions, heat pumps are both an energy-saving tool as well as a renewable energy technology. They use aerothermal, geothermal and hydrothermal energy, which are all renewable energy sources and recognized as such under the 2009 EU Directive on the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources.

Heat pump technology is already widely used in many Member States. Statistics from the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) show that France’s heat pump sales increased 127% between 2007 and 2008, almost tripling those of Germany, whose sales increased by 47%, followed by Sweden (37%), Finland (30%) and Switzerland and Austria (27%).

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