England, Poland and France: This year, Regin has been presented at seminars in several countries to illustrate how district heating can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions across Europe. Together with the Swedish Energy Agency, Regin’s last visit was to London. Here, alongside other Swedish companies, Regin met with key British players to have a dialogue on how Sweden can play a part in British district heating development.
“Our experience in technical solutions as well as customer relations are important input for the advancing energy market in England. Sweden’s export of district heating related goods and services can become a huge market, providing other countries with an effective energy supply”, says Göran Ehrngren who represented Regin in London.
Buildings in need of energy efficiency
According to the European Commission, as much as 40 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions within the EU are related to buildings. This means reducing energy consumption in buildings across Europe will have a tremendous impact in reaching the climate goals set out by the EU. “Many countries have a lot to win from improving building related energy efficiency – not in least through district heating. In England alone the district heating market is entirely dominated by gas heating, with a market share of almost 70 percent. In comparison, district heating has a market share of only 2 percent. This is a trend that must be broken.”
Getting the customer involved
By incorporating building automation services into district heating control systems, many positive effects can be gained immediately, for instance by gathering information on energy availability and consumption.
“Using an on-line district heating system enables us to visualize customer energy consumption, thereby helping the end customer in lowering their own consumption. If we can contribute to changing the behaviour of individuals living and working in buildings, we can reach the full potential for saving energy across Europe a lot faster”, says Göran Ehrngren.