How municipalities are receiving free advice and tools on local energy planning via a European-wide Support Facility

The EU wastes 2,860 TWh of heat per year - this equates to wasting 11 billion barrels of oil and 650 billion cubic meters of natural gas! Act!onHeat Ambassador Danfoss, argues that just by capturing the wasted heat, the EU would save €67 billion in the process.

To be in accordance with the REPowerEU Plan and the 2050 decarbonisation goals, city planners must accelerate their action in strategic heating and cooling (H&C) planning and decision-making in order to provide more affordable, secure, and sustainable energy to their communities. In order to accelerate this energy transition, a European-wide ‘Support Facility’ is available to all local energy planners.

As not all municipalities are equally prepared for the transition, the Act!onHeat Support Facility provides energy planners the know-how, resources and experience. The Facility’s tools and assistance then helps facilitate municipalities to start, complete, or improve upon their district H&C planning.

“Act!onHeat offers municipalities a free opportunity to gain initial experience with heating and cooling planning or to intensify ongoing work. For the current call for applications, we will focus on providing technical support and help municipalities develop, or deepen, relevant case studies,” shares Ali Aydemir, Act!onHeat’s Project Coordinator.

Since its launch in March 2022, the Support Facility has been actively guiding energy planners from municipalities across Europe. Examples of support services include: the development of guidelines in tendering services for H&C planning; targeted support on dealing with data, e.g. how to set up a cadastre for industrial excess heat; and in-depth analysis on an Act!onHeat case study on setting up a business case for the development of a district heating network. 

 Act!onHeat Support Facility participant LEA Hessen (Germany) provides their experience with the Facility, “We began working together with Act!onHeat this summer via a workshop with Hessen municipalities interested in developing a local heating plan. Act!onHeat representatives provided their expertise to the municipalities, giving them a starting point and orientation in their planning.”

For example, on building H&C strategic plans via advice and tools provided by ActionHeat,  the municipality of Zelzate (Belgium), via research conducted within the Support Facility, received a best approach scenario on how Zelzate can heat the highest total number of connected buildings, while still being financial feasible.

Interested in how the Support Facility can benefit your local community? The Call for Application is now open until 31 July 2023. 

New applicants will be selected based on their ambition, interest, and needs. Once the relationship is established, clustered and individual advice will be given on planning, pre-feasibility, and finance. Specifically, applicants will gain exclusive access and insight to the H&C planning software Hotmaps and THERMOS, which can be used for their local energy transition.

Additionally, to meet the specific needs of the locality, applicants are able to select between two different Support Facility modules to participate in:  'H&C transition strategy development'  and 'Project Feasibility'. 

Apply now via EUSurvey! 

More information can also be found on the Support Facility FAQs page. For specific questions on the Support Facility, do not hesitate to contact us at helpdesk [at] actionheat [dot] eu.