Although COVID-19 turns meetings difficult, especially on international level, the REPLACE project advances constantly. An online consortium-meeting on the 16th of September 2020 has confirmed: A number of practice-oriented tools shall be ready in the near future to support end-consumers, intermediaries and investors in their replacement actions:
- How do end-consumers, intermediaries and investors perceive renewable heating and cooling? What information sources do they use? And what barriers, challenges and needs do they view in respect to replacing inefficient systems with sustainable ones? Numerous interviews have been conducted in all partner regions. The respective reports will provide insight from October 2020 onwards and form a basis for the REPLACE campaigns.
- REPLACE assessment matrices will – in a clear and manageable way – guide to heating and cooling systems that are best fit to each building type and quality. Regional adaptions, including ecological and economical aspects, and the matrice’s design are in the making. The tool will be available from November 2020 onwards.
- The REPLACE calculator is in the making, too. A first version, including national conditions in the partner countries, will be ready to calculate concrete replacement projects from January 2021 onwards.
- There is good news for all who are looking for a workable overview over heating and cooling technologies: For end-consumers, intermediaries and investors, content for three tailored handbooks is being set up and translations shall be ready and accessible by February 2021.
- You would like to gain knowledge from sustainable heating and cooling systems that are already up and running? The REPLACE-team has been interviewing selected practitioners in the project regions, collected data and illustrative material and will publish best practice examples from February 2021 onwards.
- REPLACE offers training seminars for intermediaries and investors in six project countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. Training material is being developed and will be ready from February 2021 onwards.
- In the first local working group meetings, the working groups have identified suitable replacement campaigns, collected feedback on technologies, discovered needs such as the reduction of energy poverty, or the challenge of artisans to increase the replacement rate. A joint topic for one of the next meetings will be to determine and discuss regional market potentials for sustainable solutions.
- More information on REPLACE actions will be available from January 2021 onwards: The first project newsletter will be distributed in January 2021 (newsletter sign up). And a video will give an overview over challenges and solutions for sustainable heating and cooling.