Heating and cooling (H&C) accounted for about half of Europe’s total energy needs, with 75% still dependent on fossil fuels. Therefore, rapid and significant change was needed to reach the EU 2050 goals. Due to the local nature of H&C systems, action had to be taken at the local level, involving a variety of stakeholders. This need was recognized in recent years, leading to the development of best practice policies and open-source analysis tools. However, (efficient) H&C planning and project development were still not commonplace in most European municipalities.

The objectives of Act!onHeat were to further disseminate and promote the adoption of concepts and methods for strategic H&C planning, improve its quality, and accelerate the development and implementation of identified measures. To achieve these goals, Act!onHeat implemented the following activities: (i) identifying the success factors of strong and efficient existing H&C plans and developing a workflow for strategic H&C planning and project development based on the existing open-source tools Hotmaps and THERMOS, (ii) supporting at least 120 municipalities in strategic H&C planning and developing at least 30 pre-feasibility studies for related individual projects through a mix of tailored individual and group support activities, (iii) training stakeholders who could actively contribute to decarbonization in the use of workflows, processes, and tools through a dedicated training program, and (iv) leveraging additional impact through a mix of Europe-wide roadshow events, acceleration dialogues, webinars, and other promotional activities.

The consortium was well-suited for these activities, bringing together leading European experts in strategic H&C planning and policy analysis, local government networking, capacity building, and investment support. A remarkable number of letters of support demonstrated the interest of the target group and the strong connections between the target group and consortium members.