As Moscow wages war on Ukraine, the European Union is scrambling for ways to reduce its dependence on natural gas piped from Russia, which accounts for about 40 percent of the bloc’s total consumption.
Politicians' immediate focus has been on diversifying supply. But how Europeans keep warm will play a key role in the European Commission’s strategy to get the bloc off Russian imports by 2027. In practice, that means Brussels faces the enormous challenge of getting millions to move away from burning fossil fuels — and toward an electric alternative: the heat pump.
“Reducing Russian gas imports can only happen if there’s significant change in the way we heat our homes and offices, our schools and public buildings,” said Jan Rosenow, director of the Regulatory Assistance Project, which advises governments on their energy transition.
Buildings are the bloc’s single largest gas-consuming sector, responsible for about 38 percent of EU gas use. The vast majority of that goes toward heating; more than half of European households have a gas boiler installed.
The Commission wants to speed up the rollout of heat pumps as part of its REPowerEU plan, with the aim of installing 10 million units across the bloc over the next five years. That would save 12 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year, Brussels says — a small portion of the 155 bcm the EU imports from Russia.
But scaling up the sector has another significant benefit.
Decarbonizing buildings, which account for about a third of the EU's energy emissions, is a central part of the European Green Deal, the bloc’s strategy for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions — and heat pumps will be key for that effort, too.
Local businesses say demand has skyrocketed in recent weeks amid exploding gas prices and supply security concerns sparked by Russia’s war.
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