The new EU’s Electrification Action Plan (EAP) paves the way for the electrification of heating and cooling
Twelve years ago, in 2004 – before the onset of the economic crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic – the European Union’s share of consumed renewable electricity stood at a meagre 15.9%. This was mainly because we still heavily depended on fossil fuel imports; they were cheap, and so we turned a blind eye to its devastating effect on our climate or our independence as a continent. In 2025, due in part to Europe’s awakening moment after two energy crises, the number of consumed renewable electricity reached 49.9%. Renewables provide us with our own source of energy (making us independent from other superpowers), is the cheapest form of energy and they offer us the possibility to leave a clean world for future generations.
However, electricity is only one part of the energy story. Our final consumption of energy – the energy that reaches the final consumer – only stands at 23%. This means that 77% of the energy that we all consume does not come in the form of electricity. This is a missed opportunity, considering the investments that the EU is making in energy storage, grids, and flexibility. Furthermore, other barriers remain to achieve 100% renewable energy, and better exploit electricity: Electricity often costs x3 more than gas (as electricity prices are still tagged to gas prices through what is known as ‘marginal pricing’), grid connections are slow, and companies are not adopting renewable energy fast enough.
To solve these issues, in July 2026, the European Commission has proposed an Electrification Action Plan (EAP). This Plan aims to reduce the price gap between electricity and fossil fuels and incentivise a faster uptake of renewable electricity, two objectives that the MUSE-DHC projects fully supports.
MUSE-DHC: the implementer
The purpose of MUSE-DHC is to facilitate the uptake of renewable district heating, including through electrification. Switching from gas boilers to heat pumps cuts the average EU household’s heating bill by up to 60%, MUSE-DHC is therefore contributing to the Electrification Action Plan’s objective of reducing energy bills, as well as several others.
Firstly, the EAP sets an indicative electrification target of 46% by 2040, and highlights the importance of heating and cooling through an upcoming Heating and Cooling Action Plan. As a renewable thermal energy project, MUSE-DHC warmly welcomes such an Action Plan, and hopes that it will be socially fair.
Secondly, the EAP references district heating and cooling as it sets out to supply 15% of total heating and cooling supply with district heating by 2030. MUSE-DHC is already carrying out the technical analysis required for the delivery of district heating across several pilot areas. We are therefore proud to be a key stakeholder that not only brings renewable district heating to people’s homes, but we do so by giving citizens the ownership over the infrastructure through energy communities.
Thirdly, following the old adage of ‘waste not, want not’, the EAP sets out to supply 11% of heating demand from recovered waste heat by 2050. This is a confirmation that MUSE-DHC is on the right track, as several of our pilots are exploring the use of waste heat.
Finally, MUSE-DHC’s raison d’être: To facilitate an energy transition with citizen wellbeing and empowerment at its centre. To this end, the EAP gives us hope through the inclusion of “social leasing” of heat pumps for low and middle-income households. We do however regret that citizen ownership, empowerment, and energy communities did not become a main pillar of the Action Plan to deliver a socially-fair transition, one that is not based on profit maximisation, but on European values.
What remains?
We look forward to the upcoming Heating and Cooling Action Plan, and hope that it will correct the mistakes of the EAP by putting citizens and local authorities at the heart of the thermal energy transition.
In the meantime, MUSE-DHC will continue its work to implement the district heating objectives of the Electrification Action Plan and deliver a clean, and socially fair Europe to future generations.