Renewable Energy Directive
The revised Renewable Energy Directive EU/2023/2413, adopted in 2023, amending Directive (EU) 2018/2001, raises the EU’s binding renewable energy target for 2030 to a minimum of 42.5%. The energy sector is responsible for more than 75% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. Increasing the share of renewable energy across the different sectors of the economy is therefore a key building block to reaching the goal of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and becoming a climate-neutral continent by 2050.
According to recital 43 of Renewable Energy Directive EU/2023/2413, heat pump technology is key to producing renewable heating and cooling from ambient energy, including from wastewater treatment plants and geothermal energy. Heat pumps also allow the use of waste heat and cold. The rapid deployment of heat pumps which mobilises underused renewable energy sources such as ambient energy or geothermal energy, as well as waste heat from industrial and tertiary sectors, including data centres, makes it possible to replace natural gas and other fossil fuel-based boilers with a renewable heating solution, while increasing energy efficiency.