Series of new Ecodesign consultations in beginning 2012
New Ecodesign consultations
The European Commission has circulated in Nov. 2011 three invitations to consultations, and provided insights on further work in 2012.
Ecodesign and Energy Labelling measures for domestic coffee machines
The consultation will be held in mid December 2011. ECOS is preparing reactions to the working document which has just been circulated. The energy consumption of coffee machines is growing quickly and already estimated at 25 TWh / year in the EU (as much as the residential electricity consumption of Belgium). One of our main concerns is the multiplication of energy-using functions found in sophisticated coffee machines (such as those keeping water constantly hot for immediate use).
NGO comments on the preparatory study completed in 2011 can be found here.
Ecodesign measure for professional refrigeration equipment
The consultation will be held in January 2012 on professional refrigerated cabinets, blast cabinets, walk-in cold rooms, refrigeration process chillers and remote condensing units.
The preparatory study completed in late 2010 mainly concluded that:
- Minimum energy performance requirements could be set on all these products, starting from 2014. The potential energy savings is estimated to be about 90 TWh per year by 2025 (more than the residential electricity consumption of Spain).
- The impact of the refrigerant fluids should also be taken into consideration during the end of life phase, during which leakage can occur.
- Energy labelling, installation and maintenance guidelines as well as promotion of refrigerants with low global warming impact could lead to even further CO2 reductions.
Environmental NGOs already contributed to the preparatory study through written comments. In summary, these related to:
- Setting more stringent long-term energy efficiency requirements to provide more visibility (eventually reassessed in 2016 based on more robust market data)
- Focusing more on the promotion of greener refrigerants and the possibility of setting additional generic requirements (i.e. good practice design requirements for manufacturers and installers).
Note: another Ecodesign product group is covering ‘commercial refrigeration equipment’ (supermarket cabinets and vending machines). After a consultation in 2010, a new draft should be issued.
Ecodesign Working plan and revision of the Ecodesign Methodology
This consultation meeting in January 2012 will discuss the outcomes of two studies to be completed this year and related to the decision to expand the scope of the Ecodesign Directive in 2009 from ‘energy-using products’ to ‘energy-related products’ (meaning products that have an indirect impact on energy consumption). In order to cover such products, the methodology of the preparatory studies needed to be revised and a working plan prepared to prioritise the energy-related and remaining energy-using products to be considered in the next 3 years.
In a nutshell:
- The revision of the methodology should bring several improvements to the current one and allow more refined analysis of the environmental impacts of products (including external societal costs). However, some doubts remain about how far this will really put greater focus on the production and end-of-life phases and allow setting requirements on broad resource use (and not only energy in the use phase).
- The next working plan should highlight insulation material, windows, showerheads and bathroom equipment as potential candidates for Ecodesign and/or Energy Labelling regulations.
You may find our main comments on these two studies here.
Other expected consultations to come in the first half of 2012
- Power and distribution transformers
- Sound & imaging equipment (game consoles, DVD players, projectors)
For a full list of expected consultations, votes and adoptions, please refer to this page on this website, or the press calendar on our coolproducts campaign webpage.