The EPBD Directive and the future of gas boilers

The European Parliament adopted its position on the EPBD Directive by 343 votes to 216 with 78 abstentions. Support for the directive was mainly from the Greens (100%), for whom Ciaran Cuffe was the rapporteur, and from the Social Democrats and the majority of the Liberal caucus. The largest faction in the European Parliament, the European People's Party, was deeply divided (51 for, 58 against, 48 abstentions), and the European conservative right voted against.

The next, difficult stage will be the trilogies, which are likely to begin at the end of April. Given the politically controversial - due to the costs for consumers - nature of the directive, negotiations are likely to drag on until the autumn.

The Directive addresses the issue of the energy performance of buildings and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from buildings in the Union in order to achieve emission-free construction resources by 2050. The European Union recognises the important role of the building sector in all European emissions, and the lack of success to date in reducing emissions in this area.

The Directive is very comprehensive and therefore the following summary is selective. What is the significance of EPBD from the homeowner's perspective?

• Until 2050 all buildings in the Union must be emission-free. This means a residential building with a total primary energy consumption of <65 kWh/m2/year, using only renewable energy generated or stored at the point of consumption, from the local energy community or from an efficient heating or cooling system - Article 2 (2).
• Member States will define new energy efficiency classes of buildings in order to retrofit buildings with the worst performance (E-G). The letter A will correspond to emission-free homes, letter A+ for buildings that will not consume more than 15 kWh/m2/year. The letter G is to correspond to 15% of the buildings in the national resources with the worst parameters at the time of introduction of the scale - Article 16 (2).
• From 2024 Member States will not be able to subsidise the exchange of heat sources for fossil fuel boilers - Article 15 (10).‍
• From 2028 all new buildings are to be emission-free (2026 - all public buildings) - Article 7 (1).
• Since the entry into force of the provisions of the Directive in the country concerned will not be allowed ‍the use of fossil fuel heating systems in buildings that are new and undergoing major renovations, including hybrid heating systems, renewable fuel certified boilers and other technical building systems not using only fossil fuels, are not considered fossil fuel heating systems - Article 7 (4a) and Article 8 (3b). At the same time, Member States are to take into account operating conditions and ensure the use of equipment meeting the criteria of the highest available energy efficiency classes, to be defined in the new Ecodesign Regulation - Article 11 (1).
• From 2029 new residential buildings and from 2033 - modernized they must be equipped with installations using solar energy, if technically, functionally and economically feasible - Article 9a (3).

The directive therefore allows the use of gas boilers certified to work with renewable fuels, as well as hybrid heating systems. In new and upgraded buildings, only fossil fuel-powered heat sources will not be allowed to be used.

The entry into force of the directive now requires agreement on the content adopted by the European Parliament with the Council of the European Union.

More about the topic of the future of gas boilers we talked in the course of the webinar “What about these boilers? organized by the Polish Liquefied Gas Organization on 28 February 2023

Photos: © European Union 2023 - European Parliament