HERON – Forward-looking socio-economic research on energy efficiency in EU countries

The objectives of the Horizon 2020 project HERON running from 2015 – 2017 were:

i. the impact of socio-economic and institutional factors on implementing energy efficiency policies and measures

ii. the development of energy-efficient pathways to the Horizon 2030 and beyond taking into account the socio-economic drivers and the updated energy efficiency measures

iii. the contribution to improving energy modeling by incorporating social, educational and cultural factors so as to reflect the end-user behavior

iv. the establishment of communication channels between researchers, decision makers of different governance levels and social and market stakeholders.

These objectives were achieved through:

1. Mapping of energy efficiency policy instruments, available technologies and social, economic, cultural and educational barriers in transport and buildings
2. Assessment of the evidenced barriers and the main driving factors, in order to define their weight/importance for the implementation of energy efficiency policies
3. Determination of linkages between the factors and the energy efficiency
4. Forward-looking scenario analysis, focusing on macro- and micro-economic impacts of energy efficiency policy options
5. Policy recommendations through multi-criteria evaluation and feedback mechanisms with policy makers and market stakeholders from EU (member states, Covenant of Mayors) and neighbouring countries (Business Council of BSEC)

The HERON project developed an innovative decision support tool to incorporate non-economic and non-market elements, such as social, educational and cultural, into scenario analysis.

HERON project partners: University of Antwerpen (Belgium), Black Sea Regional Energy Centre (Bulgaria), Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (Germany), Bocconi University (Italy), Oxford Brookes University (United Kingdom), Belgrade University (Serbia)