This report offers an insight into the Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC) community’s research, development, and innovation activities and trends. Its findings indicate that priorities identified in the previously published RHC SRIA (1) are well aligned with the RD&I priorities of the RHC stakeholders and are to a large extent being implemented.

The report indicates a clear trend towards cross-cutting technologies, sector coupling, and integrated or hybrid systems, which would increase optimisation and efficiency. Findings also showed a trend towards a greater inclusion of and cooperation with other renewable technologies, particularly hydrogen-based renewable energy systems but also encompassing waste heat recovery, district heating (DH) and district cooling (DC), and thermal energy storage. Finally, RHC sectors are looking to increase the digitalisation of their technologies, such as through smart control distribution systems.

In terms of RHC stakeholders’ R&D spending, there appears to be a trend towards investing a greater amount of revenue into RD&I activities in RHC. The findings of this report point towards either an increase in funding or a stagnation over the past 3-5 years. Funding amounts seem to remain the same or increase further in the next few years.

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