NEWS
Spain leads the way in alternative refrigerants training
Sustainable cooling helps deliver on EU Climate Law
T
he European Partnership for Energy and the Environment (EPEE), the voice of the cooling and heat pump industry in Europe, has welcomed European Climate Law - the initiative to establish a legally binding 2050 climate-neutrality objective.
To ensure the success of the European Climate Law, the Commission and EU Member States should focus on the following priorities: ■ Implement and enforce the Clean Energy Package, whilst strengthening market surveillance and consolidating national heating & cooling plans as part of Member State NECPs and renovation strategies.
■ Increase climate targets in a coherent manner, ensuring that targets for GHG emission reduction, energy efficiency and renewable energy are all binding and mutually supportive.
■ Trigger sustainable investments by establishing a framework that encourages the optimum balance of investment for efficiency improvements in the demand side and power infrastructure in the supply side.
The EU and its Member States should use this opportunity to create a legislative environment that promotes an integrated heating & cooling approach, maximising the benefits of cooling whilst creating the smallest footprint in terms of GHG emissions and electrical peak demand. EPEE’s feedback on the Commission roadmap for a European Climate Law elaborates further on these points.
I
n 2017 the Spanish Environment Ministry produced legislation that would require all air conditioning and refrigeration professional technicians to undergo a minimum of six hours of mandatory retraining in low GWP alternatives. As one of the EU Member States with the highest dependency on cooling both in terms of buildings and food production, this is part of a national strategy to decrease dependency on high GWP F-Gas regulated refrigerants. The Environment Ministry worked closely with the industry, in collaboration with CNI (National Confederation of Installers) to provide anaccessible, high quality training solution that would offer value for money for a workforce of approximately 15,000 technicians across the 17 regions of Spain.
CNI recommended that the Spanish Government recognises the REAL Alternatives 4 LIFE programme as one of the official training routes. This programme was prepared in 2018 by a consortium of training and association groups across Europe and co-funded by the EU LIFE funding programme for environmental initiatives. REAL Alternatives 4 LIFE offered the Spanish trainers a range of training materials covering low GWP flammables (hydrocarbon, HFO and R32), carbon dioxide and ammonia. The materials include lesson plans, videos, training equipment
specifications, test rig design and assessments. Critically it also offers an EU-wide Certification of Technicians and Trainers who have met the required standards. Blanca Gomez of CNI
commented: “We supported the Environment Ministry’s plan to have mandatory training for professional technicians but we know that the minimum 6 hours stated in our national regulation is not enough to cover all that this should include. The REAL Alternatives 4 LIFE programme has allowed our trainers the flexibility to offer much longer courses – using some of the booklets or eLearning to recommend additional self-study for example.” The Environment Ministry paid for the e-learning, training booklets and trainer course materials and assessments to be translated into Spanish and CNI has been appointed the National Lead for REAL Alternatives in Spain. CNI has translated and revised training material and co-ordinated Train the Trainer events and Study days to improve the skills capacity of their existing refrigeration training specialists. They are now appointing official REAL Alternatives trainers and managing the issuing of certificates to technicians who have passed practical exams at the training centres. The leadership of the
Environmental Ministry has been critical to the success story of growing awareness and high
levels of take up of training in low GWP alternatives in Spain. As well as being one of the few member states to have a tax on F-Gas, they are the first in recent years to require mandatory training in alternative refrigerants. Refrigeration sustainability remains high on their agenda, but from a national business and industry point of view this reskilling is also important because it is addressing critical issues of safety, reliability and good maintenance practices. These issues are at the core of the REAL Alternatives training programme approach, and they are the critical issues that must be addressed to achieve a successful transition to a low GWP refrigeration-based economy for Europe.
There has been a rapid uptake in the two REAL Alternatives practical courses that cover Flammables and Carbon Dioxide across Spain with five Official Training Providers approved so far and offering courses at the moment.
This is being driven by the firm deadline in the Spanish Legislation that requires that all of the technicians complete at least six hours of training in alternative refrigerants by 21 February 2021.
It is estimated that so far only around 30% of the technicians have achieved this so far, so there is a realistic expectation that take up of the training will continue to increase rapidly over the next year.
www.acr-news.com April 2020 13
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