Dominik Rutz elected as New Chair of the RHC-ETIP
The mandate of the new president of the European Technology and Innovation Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling started on the 1st January 2022 and will run until the end of the year.
Dominik Rutz is Head of the Bioenergy & Bioeconomy Unit at WIP Renewable Energies, basedin Germany. Since 2005, he has been an expert at WIP on renewable energies – more specifically on bioenergy – as well as on renewable heating and cooling. He graduated with degrees in Environmental Science (Dipl.-Ing.) and Consumer Science (M.Sc.) from the Technical University of Munich. His main field of experience includes the technical and non-technical analysis of bioenergy and its supporting policies worldwide. Mr. Rutz was a coordinator of several EU projects as well as a scientific partner in various research, innovation and market support projects. For many years, Mr. Rutz has been a member of the European Technology and Innovation Platform for Renewable Heating (ETIP RHC). Since 2018, he has been the chair of the biomass technology panel of the platform. Besides his professional engagement in the renewable energy sector, he is also fully committed to the energy transition at the private level: he is a forest owner and uses part of his wood for space heating in a hybrid logwood boiler / heat pump / solar thermal system. Large shares of his electricity demand come from his roof-top PV system. Finally, he is supporting the energy transition as a local politician: he is member of the Municipal Council and an Environmental & Climate Officer in the Municipality of Wartenberg, as well as a member of the County Council in the county of Erding.Dominik Rutz praised the important role of the ETIP RHC in supporting the European Commission with the identification of research and innovation priorities for renewable heating and cooling:
“Many topics, ideas and suggestions of the ETIP RHC were taken-up in the European research and innovation agendas as well as in funding programmes. This has been achieved by extensive stakeholder involvement, including contributions of the platform’s Board Members, Secretariat and previous RHC-ETIP chairmen. I’m very honoured to take over the chairmenship and to continue the excellent work of the previous chairmen. The challenges of the energy transition in the heating and cooling sectors in Europe are huge. To contribute to the EU climate targets, the sector needs to be heavily supported with suitable framework conditions, investments and money for research and innovation, even if a full transition could be already implemented with today’s existing technologies. Therefore, we will need a multitude of technologies: solar thermal energy, heat pumps, biomass systems, geothermal, waste heat, and district heating. The coupling of different technologies (hybrid technologies) can play an important role, as well as the coupling of different sectors such as the heating and cooling sector with the electricity sector. The ETIP RHC will continue to provide input to these aspects and to the development of a smart energy transition in Europe.”
Dominik Rutz takes over from Marco Calderoni, RHC-ETIP Chairman in 2021. Mr. Calderoni concluded his chairmanship stressing the importance of cooperation with other policy and research groups. Topics like the role of electrification and the positioning towards hydrogen need to be approached by RHC ETIP in order to deeply understand threats and opportunities for RHC technologies.
The RHC-ETIP has been instrumental in raising the profile of the renewable heating and cooling sector by publishing a set of common documents, which have defined the sector’s strategic research directions, and projects’ ideas to be implemented to increase the share of renewable energy in the heating and cooling sector.
RHC-ETIP’s publications
The latest publication of the platform, the Strategic Report on Implementation of Research and Innovation Priorities and Deployment Trends of the Renewable Heating and Cooling Technologies, was released in 2021 and is available here.
RHC-ETIP’s projects database
In 2019, the RHC-ETIP launched an online database with projects on renewable heating and cooling. Since 2021, users have been able to submit their projects and join the Renewable Heating and Cooling Community, composed today by more than 120 projects.
Get involved
The RHC-ETIP represents stakeholders from the biomass, geothermal, solar thermal sectors, heat pumps, district heating and cooling, thermal storage and hybrid systems. It is, therefore, a unique ETIP covering all the renewable heating and cooling technologies. The RHC-ETIP accepts inputs from all sectors and any parties interested in contributing to any of the Horizontal Working Groups. Read more on how to become a stakeholder or a member and/or contact us via info@rhc-platform.org or through the RHC ETIP’s Twitter account.
Press contact : Céline Suchet - suchet@eurec.be
