Boosting high-quality heat pump systems in residential- and office buildings with contracting services

2026-07-22

Heat pumps represent one of the key technologies in the phase-out strategy from fossil fuels in the current decade. To support EU-level- and national goals and strategies for a broad roll-out of heat pumps, concrete concepts and effective measures and tools to accelerate the application of high-quality heat pump systems in the residential- and service sector are essential. Current roll-out measures in the EU countries are facing mainly three challenges and barriers: 1)The implementation of heat-pump technology involves high upfront investment costs which require good funding strategies. 2)Implementation of heat pump systems in the residential building stock, particularly in multi-apartement buildings, buildings with mixed use and in densely built areas involve various technical and legal challenges. 3)Currently installed heat pump systems are often not optimized regarding efficiency and performance what leads to higher energy consumption and costs and a lack of comfort for users. The proposed project addresses these challenges by implementation of heat service contracting, a business concept that allows to tackle economic, technical and legal challenges in one approach. The project will focus on the important areas of the building sector (incl. multi-apartment buildings) where heat service contracting is not yet applied and appropriate supportive concepts and tools are largely missing. The project will design and/or adapt effective legal, economic and technical tools and services supporting the whole service contracting process from assessment, planning, contract development to implementation and operation. The concept and tools will be implemented in demonstration cases in four countries as a basis for validation and development of best practice guidance. The project furthermore will provide comprehensive training services, a support service, broad national and international dissemination and long-term upscaling of heat service contracting.

Austria

2026-01-01