Heat from Renewable Energy Sources

The heating / cooling sector consumes 49% of the final energy in the EU, or almost as much as transport and electricity combined. Most of this thermal energy is produced from fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal). In 2004 renewable sources of energy such as biomass, solar and geothermal energy provided 49 Mtoe: 8.4% of total heat consumption. RES heating and cooling in the EU is dominated by biomass (50% of which is household heat), which with the enlargement to EU-27 technically could provide for at least 133 Mtoe by 2020. As regards solar thermal, in the period up to the end of 2005 there have been over 16 million m2 of collectors installed in the EU, but over 70% of this capacity has been installed just in 3 European countries (Germany, Greece and Austria). In 2005, the share of geothermal energy sources (both deep and ambient sources) was below 0.5% of the overall consumption of thermal energy in the EU-25 providing around 1,8 Mtoe.