Sep. 17, 2008 - The European Parliaments Industry Committee backed EU legislation that targets extensive deployment of renewable technologies, including all types of heat pumps. New rules could also promote, or oblige, the use of renewable technologies in new and existing buildings. The European Parliaments Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) voted on 11 September in favour of proposals that will consider all types of heat pumps as renewable, against claims that they should not be considered so because they require auxiliary energy. Initial intention of the ITRE Committee was to discriminate among different types of heat pumps, excluding air-source heat pumps from the proposed Directive. However, the vote supported the enhancement of the definition for Renewable Energy Sources (RES) to include aerothermal, hydrothermal and geothermal energy sources, as EU law currently does not encompass a harmonised definition of those.
