Page 72 - European Energy Innovation - summer 2018 publication

72 Summer 2018 European Energy Innovation
COMMUNICATION
HORIZON2020 Project HERON
Forward-looking socio-economic research on Energy Efficiency in EU countries. GA No. 649690
AIM
Taking into account that behavioral barriers demonstrated
by end users create negative deviations in EE set targets
between 5-20% in EU and 20-30% globally1, the HERON
project aims at facilitating policy makers to develop and
monitor Energy Efficiency (EE) policies in building and
transport sectors, through forward-looking socio-economic
research in six EU and one candidate countries (Bulgaria,
Germany, Greece, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Italy and
Serbia). The research effort lasted for almost three years.
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
The innovative core element is the incorporation of non-
economic and non-market elements, such as social, educational
and cultural, into energy modeling for reflecting the end-user 2. Define the set of behavioral barriers (in relation to input
behavior towards EE in the two aforementioned sectors.
Based on advanced research, surveys and questionnaire,
an innovative tool is developed providing policy makers
with the ability, for the first time, to quantify the
qualitative characteristics associated with end-users’
behavioral barriers. This user-friendly software, named
as HERON Decision Support Tool (HERON – DST) allows
the calculation of the impact of behavioral barriers on the
input drivers (technologies and policies) and the assumed
targets of EE scenarios. The tool is developed by the Energy
Policy and Development Centre (KEPA) of the National and
Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) (Coordinator of
1. UNEP, 2016. The Emissions Gap Report 2016 – A UNEP synthesis Report. At: http://www.unep.org/emissionsgap/resources
2. Konidari P., D. Mavrakis, 2007. “A multi-criteria evaluation method for climate change mitigation policy instruments”, Energy Policy 35, pages 6235-6257.
Media: www.heron2017.wordpress.com // www.heron-project.eu //
Social media: www.facebook.com/HERON-project-264688910595765// https://twitter.com/heron_project
the project) and is assessed as successful and innovative
by two independent groups of EU evaluators.
HERON partners worked on deviations caused by barriers
of end-users’ behavior towards EE targets and studied ways
of addressing these barriers and reducing these deviations,
through effective policies. The developed pathway of the
project facilitates its users to conclude with the preferred
scenario, among a number of optimal developed ones with
the use of the multi-criteria AMS2.
This overall HERON process (pathway), as built through the
project progress, follows these steps:
1. Develop EE scenarios;
drivers);
3. Collect and develop a reliable qualitative data base;
4. Calculate (through the HERON – DST) the impact and
total impact factors of barriers;
5. Calculate the emerging deviations, due to behavioral
barriers, on both the input drivers and EE targets, in
scenarios’ analysis;
6. Optimize the mixture of input drivers and final targets
with HERON -DST;
7. Identify the optimum EE scenario against Environmental
performance, Political acceptability and Feasibility of
implementation using the multi-criteria AMS;
8. Conclude with a policy mixture leading to a more
effective and preferable EE scenario.
IMPACT
HERON was selected by the European Commission as
good practice project, incorporating social sciences and
humanities in HORIZON 2020 projects, after a screening
procedure with the participation of 500 project coordinators.
The importance of its outcomes is quoted in an EU
Commission StaffWorking Group Document (SWD/2016/0404
final - 2016/0376 (COD) (Document 4, Chapter 6.2, p. 95)).
HERON is disseminated among the twelve member states
of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation organization while it
is planned to be implemented in the process of promoting
EE programmes through GCF procedures. l
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