Horizontal Working Groups

Started in October 2017, the process to restructure the RHC-ETIP with a view to fostering its multisectoral and multidisciplinary approach, is completed. To this extent, Horizontal Working Groups (HWGs) have been created. As a new approach, HWGs bring together interested experts from different technology panels to work on common horizontal topics, defined on the basis of main challenges to be addressed by the RHC-sector.

The first HWGs to be launched, as decided by the RHC-Board during its meeting on 3rd October 2018 in Graz (AT), are:

100% RE buildings (individually heated and cooled), led by Oyvind Skreiberg from SINTEF (NO)

100% RE industries led by Christoph Brunner from AEE Intec (AT)

100% RE cities, led by Gerhard Stryi-Hipp from Fraunhofer-ISE (DE)

100% RE districts, led by Ralf-Roman Schmidt from AIT (AT)

Each HWG defines its own programme in order to achieve its pre-defined goal. These technical HWGs are composed of experts from several renewable heating and cooling technologies, and are complemented by external expertise, such as socio-economic experts, experts from the traditional heating and cooling sector, from the building sector etc…

The Technical HWGs meet regularly: two physical meetings per year, and several phone calls, according to their work programme. They also provide input to the strategic HWGs, which are composed of two representatives per technical HWG:

Vision for the RHC sector towards 2050 launched in 2019

Strategic research priorities launched in 2020

Deployment and innovation strategy launched in 2021