The transition from ‘old’ to ‘new’ heat is disrupting the market in several ways, creating new business models, customer propositions and new technology ecosystems, as well as opening up opportunities for new market players and sales channels. In part one of this two-part blog series, we discussed  how new technology ecosystems and connectivity are shaping the market. 

For this second and final part of the heat blog series we consider customer propositions and new market entrants and how they will impact the heating market. 

The transition from ‘old’ to ‘new’ heat is disrupting the market in several ways, creating new business models, customer propositions and technology ecosystems, as well as opening up opportunities for new market players and sales channels. This two-part blog series will consider how the heat market could evolve and what could be seen in the next few years.

This first part considers heating system functionality and connectivity, value stream diversification and hydrogen for heat. The second will look at customer propositions.

All personal opinions regarding Brexit aside, there’s no denying that the European Commission and European Union has a huge influence over the energy sector. Recent episode of Talking New Energy, the Delta-EE podcast, focuses on what the latest policy coming out of the EU means for the energy transition. 

As Frauke Thies, Executive Director at SmartEn, explains, organisations such as SmartEn help their members understand the legislation coming out of the European Union and how it affects them. It is not always easy to help countries understand the influence of the EU, but its influence is paramount. Take the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, for example, which has set the target for member states to achieve nearly zero energy buildings in new builds. In the future this will push towards achieving a renovation of building stock as well. 

The European Heat Pump Summit (powered by Chillventa) is always eagerly anticipated by the heat team at Delta-EE. This year was no exception, with a packed agenda discussing the current state of the art in the design of all types of heat pump, and applications spanning from domestic to industrial, from low temperature to high temperature, and using a wide range of refrigerants. Contributions came from further afield than just the EU with India, Japan and China being notable contributors. 

Given the wide range of topics up for discussion, what were the key takeaways? My top three are given below:

It was an inspiring two days at the Delta-EE European Heat Summit in London last week when close to 100 delegates from across the heating sector were brought together in an exciting programme spanning start-ups to energy giants and topics as diverse as hydrogen networks, smart electric heating controls and heat-as-a-service.

With this year’s Summit, it seems to us at Delta-EE that we have reached a tipping point in the decarbonisation debate. Decarbonising new build across Europe is looking increasingly positive, and though retrofit remains the largest challenge, the Summit demonstrated that there is a wealth of technologies, business models and proposition ideas that – targeted at the right sectors – promise to overcome some of this challenge.

We are at a pivotal time for the heating market in Europe, as the transition from ‘old’ to ‘new’ heat gains traction.

The decarbonisation agenda is finally placing heat at its centre in many markets. The heating market is seeing more disruption than ever before, as new market players compete with the incumbents, new business models and propositions emerge, traditional routes to market are turned on their heads, and technology ecosystems evolve.