The RED, the EED and the EPBD (recast) require member states to develop ambitious policies for sustainable heating and cooling. The objective of this project is to assist policy makers at the local, regional, national and EU-level in developing and implementing integrated, effective and efficient policy strategies achieving a fast and strong penetration of RES and EE in heating and cooling. This will include the analysis of cross-sectoral effects between RES and EE measures in industry, buildings and DHC as well as the link to the electricity system. The core part of the proposal is the communication and capacity building process with policy makers, administrative staff and other stakeholders at the local, regional and national level including the set up of policy group meetings, expert consultations, experience sharing and capacity building workshops as well as webinars. The process will focus on 6 target countries and regions. Together with the authorities heating and cooling strategies will be developed through a profound analysis of their specific situation including barriers & drivers and a model based assessment of policy intervention in scenarios up to 2050. progRESsHEAT will assist national policy makers in implementing the policies published in the national heating and cooling plans in an effective and efficient way by the means of a model-based quantitative impact assessment of local, regional and national policies up to 2050. Data, scenarios and recommendations will be provided for the target countries. Dissemination activities will transfer results to other countries and the EU-level. Policy makers and other stakeholders will be strongly involved in the process, learn from the experience in other regions and gain deep understanding of the impact of policy instruments and their specific design. This will provide the ground for favourable, stable conditions for increasing the efficiency and the penetration of renewable heating and cooling in Europe.

The hydrogen fuel cell (FC) bus is one of very few options for the elimination of harmful local emissions and the decarbonisation of public transport. Its performance has been validated in Europe in recent years through various demonstration projects, however, a number of actions are required to allow the commercialisation of FC buses. These include addressing the high ownership costs relative to conventional buses, ensuring the FC buses can meet the high availability levels demanded by public transport, developing the refuelling infrastructure to provide reliable, low-cost hydrogen and improving the understanding of the potential of FC buses for zero emission public transport. JIVE will pave the way to commercialisation by addressing these issues through the deployment of 142 fuel cell buses across 8 locations, more than doubling the number of FC buses operating in Europe. JIVE will use coordinated procurement activities to unlock the economies of scale which are required to reduce the cost of the buses. They will operate in large fleets of 10-30 buses, reducing the overhead costs per bus, as well as allowing more efficient supply chains and maintenance operations compared to previous deployments. By working at this scale and with bus OEMs with proven vehicles, JIVE will ensure reliability at the level required for commercialisation. JIVE will also test new hydrogen refuelling stations with the required capacity to serve fleets in excess of 20 buses. This will not only reduce the costs of hydrogen and increase the availability of equipment but will also test the ability to offer >99% reliability, which is required for the commercialisation of FC buses. A dissemination campaign will use the project results to demonstrate the technical readiness of FC buses to bus operators and the economic viability of hydrogen as a zero emission bus fuel to policy makers will help to catalyse the future development and expansion of the hydrogen bus sector.

The spotlight on health impacts of poor air quality and the renewed focus on reducing GHG emissions in recent years provide a strong impetus for cities to seek clean, low carbon transport solutions. When it comes to meeting growing demands for public transport and addressing environmental issues, hydrogen fuel cell (FC) buses offer significant potential. A commercialisation process for FC buses is underway, through which a shared vision has been agreed between vehicle suppliers and their customers. This is based on reducing costs through scale via a phased approach of pre-commercial demonstrations that will provide the evidence for wider uptake of these vehicles in the 2020s. The first step in upscaling FC bus deployment is underway through the JIVE project, which began in January 2017. JIVE 2 is its successor and is Europe’s most ambitious FC bus project to date: 156 buses in 11 cities across six countries. JIVE 2 involves regions with experience of the technology scaling up fuel cell bus fleets (e.g. Cologne), and those seeking to build their knowledge and experience by demonstrating FC buses in small fleets for the first time (e.g. Auxerre). All deployment locations in JIVE 2 share an ambition to increase the size of their FC bus fleets following successful initial demonstrations, hence the participating cities/regions will be natural locations for larger scale roll-out of the technology in the 2020s. A comprehensive data monitoring and assessment exercise will capture the relevant evidence to inform next steps for the sector, and the project’s impacts will be maximised by a high-impact dissemination campaign. This will involve reaching wide audiences via various channels, including a series of international Zero Emission Bus Conferences. The JIVE and JIVE 2 projects together will see the deployment and operation of nearly 300 FC buses in 16European cities/regions, thus providing a sound basis for further development of this sector.