A Memorandum of Understanding to encourage greater uptake of electric heat pumps through the promotion of electrification activities and energy efficiency through the use of renewable energies.
Milan, December 16th, 2021 - A memorandum of understanding was signed by Sonia Sandei, Head of Electrification at Enel Italia, and Luca Binaghi, President of Assoclima, the association federated with Anima representing air conditioning system manufacturers within Confindustria, with a view to encouraging the uptake of electric heat pumps in Italy as summer and winter air conditioning systems, particularly in the residential sector. The aim of the agreement is to promote initiatives to spread the knowledge and use of a technology that improves people's well-being while protecting the environment and to develop activities aimed at encouraging the production of renewable electrical and thermal energy, in line with the provisions of the European New Green Deal and the NECP for the achievement of the 2030 and 2050 objectives.
Sonia Sandei, Head of Electrification at Enel Italia, said, "The partnership with Assoclima is a further crucial step on the path towards the electrification of final consumption, a central factor in the ecological transition.
Heat pumps play a key role in improving energy efficiency, reducing consumption and energy expenditure, and cutting emissions in the residential and tertiary sectors, where there is plenty of room for improvement. Improvement needed if we are to meet the challenging electrification targets of the NECP and the European New Green Deal, to go from 33% in 2020 to 46% in 2030 and 66% in 2050.
This is a decisive moment to accelerate decarbonization, with a push towards electrification and the development of renewables, and this partnership will allow us to make real progress in spreading good practice in the residential and tertiary segments. We know that supporting electrification initiatives in the domestic sector means both involving people and making the benefits of switching to electricity more readily available to them. The basis of this will be improving and growing an Italian production chain of excellence, which exports 61% of its output and includes not only manufacturers but also installers and certifiers, and will therefore lead to the creation of new and green jobs."
"This is the decisive decade for containing the impact of climate change," said Luca Binaghi, President of Assoclima, "and the world of construction is the area to focus on to achieve the decarbonization objectives, but this requires ever greater synergies between the players who share these objectives. It is a great pleasure for us to be able to reaffirm our long-standing partnership with Enel, which today takes on even greater significance because the contribution our technologies can make to the ecological transition challenge is clearer than ever before. The need to move towards electrification of final consumption is no longer in question; now the urgency is to realize the potential demonstrated in theory through implementation initiatives that create the most favorable conditions for a greater penetration of not only heat pumps, but the full range of more efficient air-conditioning systems that our association represents. We want to share our respective skills to grow even stronger and face the numerous projects with a common vision, including for the year to come, but we also want to contribute to generating an increase in investments and direct and indirect employment in the sector by using this agreement with Enel as a generator of ideas and stimuli, which is the essence of understanding how to do business.”
“The Enel-Assoclima protocol is signed as a result of the sustainability logic that unites us, based on the model of creating shared value aimed above all at people's wellbeing and the green economy,” said Fernando Pettorossi, Assoclima Heat Pump Group Leader. "Enel is the world's leading producer of renewable electricity, Assoclima brings together heat pump manufacturers and distributors with the important mission of significantly increasing the production of renewable thermal energy by 2030 and contributing to the reduction of CO2, PM10 and other particulate emissions. Looking back at the last 15 years, we can see the path of heat pump development has moved from the prehistoric to historic stage, when awareness of renewable energy production technology and the consequent positive effects on the environment was established, creating a window on the future. We are finally beginning to plan the integration of electric heat pump technology into the overall national electricity distribution system, not only with a demand response logic, but above all due to the smart dialogue that heat pumps can develop with the electricity grid, thereby also making a significant contribution to the safety and stability of the electricity system.”