Renewable Energy for Residential Heating and Cooling: Policy Handbook

Heating and cooling represent significant energy loads around the world, with the associated high level of carbon emissions. Many countries have commitments in place to derive an increasing proportion of the energy they use for heating and cooling from renewable sources; some are seeing greater success than others in moving towards these targets.

This best practices handbook from the International Energy Agency's Renewable Energy Technology Deployment (RETD) Implementing Agreement provides energy policymakers and professionals in the renewable energy industry with a practical, easy to use guide and toolkit to the most effective policy options for deploying renewable energy for heating and cooling in the residential sector.

The book opens with a comparative review of renewable energy for heating and cooling policies in a broad range of IEA member countries in Europe, Asia and North America and then goes on to present the policy approaches of the individual countries and more detailed studies of specific programmes. The second part of the book presents readers with flowcharts which allow them to navigate directly to the best practices which are most relevant to their situation. Planning, design and implementation are all covered, each with examination of the possible barriers that may be faced and the most appropriate policy response used to date.