Digitalization can improve cities' liveability in multiple domains, such as security in streets (e.g. cameras or smart surveillance systems), healthcare and wellbeing (with telemedicine, real-time air quality monitoring, etc.), economic development and housing (e.g. peer-to-p...

This quarterly newsletter covers latest news, events and activities in the areas falling in the scope of the European Covenant of Companies for Climate and Energy, a commitment-driven pilot initiative, which aims to encourage and support EU companies – primarily but not limited t...

As zero operational-cost variable Renewable Energy Sources are foreseen to dominate the future energy mix, the abundance of green electricity will allow the replacement of fossil fuels in sectors such as heating, cooling, industrial processes, and transport. The intermittency of ...

In this edition of the EU islands newsletter, we want to shine a light on our Energy Academies. Through the Energy Academies, we provide in-depth capacity-building support to island communities and help foster a dialogue between stakeholders at the local, regional and even nation...

Energy efficiency investments must more than double to achieve the EU’s new climate and energy targets. This EEFIG report takes a deep dive into the current status and identifies necessary actions to scale up energy efficiency investments in buildings, SMEs and industry. ...

This report develops a sociotechnical understanding of energy prosumerism to investigate how energy prosumerism, as an alternative production and consumption pattern, can lead to actual reductions of energy and material resource demand. The report starts out by explaining what a ...

This EEFIG report looks at the relationship between the energy performance of buildings, credit risk and asset values in an effort to understand if green loans are less risky or if a better energy performance can increase the property value. It sets out some relevant findings bas...

This report examines the implementation of the EEDI framework and its effect on ship design and energy efficiency in general. It shows that EEDI, together with market conditions has resulted in substantial improvements in energy efficiency of ships. This has been achieved mainly ...

This report examines the implementation of the EEDI framework and its effect on ship design and energy efficiency in general. It shows that EEDI, together with market conditions has resulted in substantial improvements in energy efficiency of ships. This has been achieved mainly ...

Coherent Resilience 2021 – Baltic (CORE 21-B) was a Tabletop Exercise (TTX) on the Baltic States and hybrid threats to the regional electric grid with a focus on critical energy infrastructure protection. The TTX took place 20-24 September 2021 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The aim of t...

This report summarises the main outcomes of several experimental studies carried out by the Joint Research Centre on blockchain solutions for energy systems. It presents considerations and recommendations for European policymakers regarding blockchain deployment across the energy...

This report provides a detailed analysis of the potential for cost-effective renewable energy projects and associated infrastructure requirements in the CESEC region, in the short and long terms of 2030 and 2050, respectively. The analysis has an explicit focus on cross-border co...

In 2019, the European Commission announced its European Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives to curb CO2 emissions across the economy by 2050, and in summer 2021 the Commission presented the Fit for 55 package, which set an intermediate target to reduce emissions by 55% from 1...

One important and very beneficial field of digital energy services consists in the provision of flexi-bility services (i.e. generation flexibility, demand side flexibility, storage flexibility). Thus, the aim of this study is to provide a framework for the development of energy s...

A confluence of external and internal factors triggered the energy crisis that engulfed Europe in 2021. The crisis, which has led to a surge in energy prices and market turmoil, continues to be a major source of concern. The balance between the security, affordability and sustain...

The year 2022 has started with rising energy costs and threats to Europe's security, also in the field of energy. This leads to human suffering, a squeeze on household budgets and has rendered the energy policy framework of the last decades in urgent need of reform. One thing...

Despite the ongoing challenge caused by the COVID‐19 pandemic, 2021 was a great year for the Smart Cities Marketplace and its wider community, with many interesting events such as the Smart Cities Marketplace Forum, Matchmaking events, Masterclasses, and Action Cluster Meetings, ...

The European Commission’s hydrogen strategy presented in July 2020 outlines, amongst other elements, how to upscale the demand and supply of renewable hydrogen. It has set the strategic objective to install at least 40 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolyser capacity within the EU ...

This is a background report designed to provide guidance on defining and accounting for efficient district heating and cooling networks under Article 14 of the Energy Efficiency Directive and Articles 23 and 24 of the Renewable Energy Directive. It also analyses the options for a...

The European Commission’s hydrogen strategy presented in July last year outlines, amongst other elements, how to upscale the demand and supply of renewable hydrogen. It has set the strategic objective to install at least 40 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers within the EU and...

Decommissioning offshore oil and gas infrastructure is the process of permanent resealing of wells such that remaining hydrocarbons cannot leak to the sea, or move between different rock strata, and the removal of offshore oil and gas infrastructure from the marine environment wi...

Clean technologies developed by Horizon 2020-funded projects for reducing the impact of energy intensive industrial processes are helping Europe to transform into a sustainable, competitive economy and address environmental and climate-related challenges. This Results Pack highli...

This study provides an analysis of the gaps in EU policies aimed at increasing industrial energy efficiency, an assessment of the ability of the electricity grid to absorb large increases in renewables, and an evaluation of the energy efficiency potential of the Renovation Wave. ...

Over the last two years, the European Union (EU) has made clear its intention to incorporate a large portion of low carbon and renewable hydrogen in the energy mix, from essentially zero today to as much as 20% of final energy consumption in just 28 years. This was made explicit ...

According to studies carried out by European Commission Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER), buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of the primary energy consumption in Europe. Therefore, there is a vital need to take actions to improve the energy efficiency of the ...

In 2020, the European Commission launched a hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral Europe, setting out the conditions and actions for mainstreaming clean hydrogen, along with targets for installing renewable hydrogen electrolysers by 2024 and 2030. Blending hydrogen alongside ot...

The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive (the Directive), adopted in 2014, creates a common framework of measures for the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure in the EU. It requires Member States (MSs) to set up long-term National Policy Frameworks (NPFs) for the ...

The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive (the Directive), adopted in 2014, creates a common framework of measures for the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure in the EU. It requires Member States (MSs) to set up long-term National Policy Frameworks (NPFs) for the ...

The LIFE programme addresses the challenges and negative impacts of the EU’s current energy mix and technologies. LIFE also helps implement relevant EU energy policies. These policies have the potential to bring considerable benefits to consumers and the environment. They can als...

Sustainable development of the Uzbek and Tajik power sectors offers attractive opportunities for both countries, i.e. in terms of improved security of electricity supply and increased use of renewable energy sources, along with reduced greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. ...

This study aims at gathering experiences and identifying best practices in both the urban planning and construction phases for thermal networks (district heating) in the built environment. The lessons learned should help local governments and new potential district heating operat...

The European Union (EU) set itself a goal of creating at least 40 GW of electrolyser capacity within the EU and a goal of using up to 10 million tonnes/year of renewable hydrogen by around 2030 in line with its goal of climate neutrality by 2050 target. Much of this hydrogen is e...

The present study was prepared in assistance to the impact assessment for designing a regulatory framework for hydrogen in the context of the revision of the EU Gas Market Directive (2009/73/EC). The analysis has for objective to provide the quantitative evaluation of scenarios a...

The EU Green Deal, as presented by the European Commission in late 2019, fixes the objective to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent, i.e., to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In order to meet this target, a review of major EU Directives and Regulatio...

This report describes the technical implementations of the Administrative Agreement between DG ENER and DG JRC, called Enerchain. In particular it presents the results of the experimental tests and of the results carried out to implement workpackage 4 and and workpackage 5 as def...

Among the various digital technologies and solutions, blockchain recently attracted much interest due its perspective manifold applications in the energy, climate and sustainability sectors. Blockchain indeed promises to support several European Union’s climate-neutrality and sus...

In this report, we analyse from a technical and legislative point of view the most promising applications of Distributed Ledger Technology to the electrical energy sector, as they were selected from the previous work performed in the AA between DG ENER and DG JRC, called Enerchai...

One example of a way for citizens to contribute to the low-carbon energy transition is by investing in energy efficiency (EE). However, there are still multiple barriers that make the socially optimal level of adoption a complex target to achieve. Over the past three decades, the...

CINEA provides visibility for EU funding opportunities and project results – and supports potential applicants and beneficiaries, allowing them to benefit from the Agency’s long-standing experience of programme implementation with a high level of performance. ...

The purpose of this article is to review the Commission's 'Fit for 55' package. It first summarises the Commission's proposals as succinctly as possible. It then analyses what is likely to be the collective impact of the package as a whole on specific sectors, and...

The Ecodesign Impact Accounting (EIA) Annual Report 2020 consists of two parts that can be read separately: the Overview Report and the Status Report. The Overview Report is intended for a general audience. It is organised per product group (e.g. space heating, water heating, spa...

Article 6 of the ETS Directive states that aid for indirect ETS costs may be granted based on ex-ante benchmarks of the indirect emissions of CO2 per unit of production. The benchmark for efficient electricity use (expressed in MWh/t) reflects the fact that companies should only ...

This report provides guidance on defining and accounting for waste heat for the purposes of a) comprehensive assessments of waste heat potential under the Energy Efficiency and recast Renewable Energy Directives (EED and RED), and b) the targets under Articles 23 and 24 of the RE...