- active cooling
means the removal of heat from a space or process, for which an energy input is needed to meet the cooling demand, used when the natural flow of energy is unavailable or insufficient and can occur with or without a cooling generator;
- actual value
means the greenhouse gas emissions savings for some or all of the steps of a specific biofuel, bioliquid or biomass fuel production process, calculated in accordance with the methodology laid down in Part C of Annex V or Part B of Annex VI;
- advanced biofuels
means biofuels that are produced from the feedstock listed in Part A of Annex IX;
- agricultural biomass
means biomass produced from agriculture;
- agricultural, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry residues
means residues that are directly generated by agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry and that do not include residues from related industries or processing;
- ambient energy
means naturally occurring thermal energy and energy accumulated in the environment with constrained boundaries, which can be stored in the ambient air, excluding in exhaust air, or in surface or sewage water;
- bi-directional recharging
means bi-directional recharging as defined in Article 2, point (11), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804;
- bidding zone
means a bidding zone as defined in Article 2, point (65), of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- biofuels
means liquid fuel for transport produced from biomass;
- biogas
means gaseous fuels produced from biomass;
- bioliquids
means liquid fuel for energy purposes other than for transport, including electricity and heating and cooling, produced from biomass;
- biomass
means the biodegradable fraction of products, waste and residues from biological origin from agriculture, including vegetal and animal substances, from forestry and related industries, including fisheries and aquaculture, as well as the biodegradable fraction of waste, including industrial and municipal waste of biological origin;
- biomass fuels
means gaseous and solid fuels produced from biomass;
- biowaste
means biowaste as defined in point (4) of Article 3 of Directive 2008/98/EC;
- co-located energy storage
means an energy storage facility combined with a facility producing renewable energy and connected to the same grid access point;
- cogeneration
shall mean the simultaneous generation in one process of thermal energy and electrical and/or mechanical energy;
- cold source
means an external natural sink into which the heat extracted from the space or process is transferred;
- comfort fan
means a product that includes a fan and electric motor assembly to move air and provide summer comfort by increasing the air speed around human body giving a thermal feeling of coolness;
- cooling
means the extraction of heat from an enclosed or indoor space (comfort application) or from a process in order to reduce the space or process temperature to, or maintain it at, a specified temperature (set point);
- Cooling Degree Days
means the climate values computed with a base of 18 °C used as input to determine equivalent full load hours.
- cooling device
means a device designed to perform active cooling;
- cooling generator
means the part of a cooling system that generates a temperature difference allowing heat extraction from the space or process to be cooled, using a vapour compression cycle, a sorption cycle or driven by another thermodynamic cycle, used when the cold source is unavailable or insufficient;
- cooling system
means an assembly of components consisting of a heat extraction system, one or several cooling devices and a heat rejection system, complemented in the case of active cooling with a cooling medium in the form of fluid that work together to generate a specified heat transfer and, thus, ensures a required temperature;
- default value
means a value derived from a typical value by the application of pre-determined factors and that may, in circumstances specified in this Directive, be used in place of an actual value.
- distribution system operator
means an operator as defined in point (6) of Article 2 of Directive 2009/72/EC and in point (6) of Article 2 of Directive 2009/73/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- district cooling
means the distribution of thermal energy in the form of chilled liquids, from central or decentralised sources of production through a network to multiple buildings or sites, for the use of space or process cooling;
- domestic battery
means a stand-alone rechargeable battery of rated capacity greater than 2 kwh, which is suitable for installation and use in a domestic environment;
- economically justifiable demand
means the demand that does not exceed the needs for heat or cooling and which would otherwise be satisfied at market conditions.
- efficient district heating and cooling
means efficient district heating and cooling as defined in point (41) of Article 2 of Directive 2012/27/EU;
- electric vehicle battery
means an electric vehicle battery as defined in Article 3(1), point (14), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- electricity market
means electricity markets as defined in Article 2, point (9), of Directive (EU) 2019/944;
- energy efficiency first
means energy efficiency first as defined in Article 2, point (18), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999;
- energy input
means the energy needed to transport the fluid (free cooling), or the energy needed to transport the fluid and to drive the cooling generator (active cooling with a cooling generator);
- energy performance certificate
means energy performance certificate as defined in point (12) of Article 2 of Directive 2010/31/EU;
- equivalent full load hours
means the number of hours a cooling system runs with full load to produce the amount of cooling that it actually produces during a year but at varying loads;
- financial instrument
means a financial instrument as defined in point (29) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- food and feed crops
means starch-rich crops, sugar crops or oil crops produced on agricultural land as a main crop excluding residues, waste or ligno-cellulosic material and intermediate crops, such as catch crops and cover crops, provided that the use of such intermediate crops does not trigger demand for additional land;
- forest biomass
means biomass produced from forestry;
- forest regeneration
means the re-establishment of a forest stand by natural or artificial means following the removal of the previous stand by felling or as a result of natural causes, including fire or storm;
- free cooling
means a cooling system using a natural cold source to extract heat from the space or process to be cooled via fluid(s) transportation with pump(s) and/or fan(s) and which does not require the use of a cooling generator;
- fuel supplier
means an entity supplying fuel to the market that is responsible for passing fuel through an excise duty point or, in the case of electricity or where no excise is due or where duly justified, any other relevant entity designated by a Member State;
- geothermal energy
means energy stored in the form of heat beneath the surface of solid earth;
- gross final consumption of energy
means the energy commodities delivered for energy purposes to industry, transport, households, services including public services, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, the consumption of electricity and heat by the energy branch for electricity and heat production, and losses of electricity and heat in distribution and transmission;
- guarantee of origin
means an electronic document which has the sole function of providing evidence to a final customer that a given share or quantity of energy was produced from renewable sources;
- heat extraction system
means a device that removes heat from the space or process to be cooled, such as an evaporator in a vapour compression cycle;
- heat rejection system
means the device where the final heat transfer from the cooling medium to the heat sink occurs, such as the air-to-refrigerant condenser in an air-cooled vapour compression cycle;
- high-efficiency cogeneration
means high-efficiency cogeneration as defined in point (34) of Article 2 of Directive 2012/27/EU;
- industrial battery
means an industrial battery as defined in Article 3(1), point (13), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542;
- industrial grade roundwood
means saw logs, veneer logs, round or split pulpwood, as well as all other roundwood that is suitable for industrial purposes, excluding roundwood the characteristics of which, such as species, dimensions, rectitude and node density, make it unsuitable for industrial use as defined and duly justified by Member States according to the relevant forest and market conditions;
- industry
means undertakings and products that fall under sections B, C, and F and under section J, division (63) of the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE REV.2), as set out in Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- innovative renewable energy technology
means renewable energy generation technology that improves, in at least one way, comparable state-of-the-art renewable energy technology or that renders renewable energy technology that is not fully commercialised or that involves a clear degree of risk exploitable;
- jointly acting renewables self-consumers
means a group of at least two jointly acting renewables self-consumers in accordance with point (14) who are located in the same building or multi-apartment block;
- ligno-cellulosic material
means material composed of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose, such as biomass sourced from forests, woody energy crops and forest-based industries' residues and wastes;
- low indirect land-use change-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels
means biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels, the feedstock of which was produced within schemes which avoid displacement effects of food and feed-crop based biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels through improved agricultural practices as well as through the cultivation of crops on areas which were previously not used for cultivation of crops, and which were produced in accordance with the sustainability criteria for biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels laid down in Article 29;
- market participant
means a market participant as defined in Article 2, point (25), of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;
- non-energy purpose
means the use of fuels as raw materials in an industrial process, rather than to produce energy;
- non-food cellulosic material
means feedstock mainly composed of cellulose and hemicellulose, and having a lower lignin content than ligno-cellulosic material, including food and feed crop residues, such as straw, stover, husks and shells;
- normal power recharging point
means a normal power recharging point as defined in Article 2, point (37), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804;
- osmotic energy
means energy created from the difference in salt concentration between two fluids, such as fresh water and salt water;
- passive cooling
means the removal of heat by the natural flow of energy through conduction, convection, radiation or mass transfer without the need for moving a cooling fluid to extract and reject heat or to generate a lower temperature with a cooling generator, including decreasing the need for cooling by building design features such as building insulation, green roof, vegetal wall, shading or increased building mass, by ventilation or by using comfort fans;
- plantation forest
means a plantation forest as defined in Article 2, point (11), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- power set point
means the dynamic information held in a battery’s management system prescribing the electric power settings at which the battery should optimally operate during a recharging or a discharging operation, so that its state of health and operational use are optimised;
- primary seasonal performance factor
means a metric of the primary energy conversion efficiency of the cooling system;
- recharging point
means a recharging point as defined in Article 2, point (48), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- recycled carbon fuels
means liquid and gaseous fuels that are produced from liquid or solid waste streams of non-renewable origin which are not suitable for material recovery in accordance with Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC, or from waste processing gas and exhaust gas of non-renewable origin which are produced as an unavoidable and unintentional consequence of the production process in industrial installations;
- regulatory authority
means a regulatory authority as defined in Article 2, point (2), of Regulation (EU) 2019/943;
- renewable energy
means energy from renewable non-fossil sources, namely wind, solar (solar thermal and solar photovoltaic) and geothermal energy, osmotic energy, ambient energy, tide, wave and other ocean energy, hydropower, biomass, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas, and biogas;
- renewable energy community
means a legal entity:
- renewable energy obligation
means a support scheme requiring energy producers to include a given share of energy from renewable sources in their production, requiring energy suppliers to include a given share of energy from renewable sources in their supply, or requiring energy consumers to include a given share of energy from renewable sources in their consumption, including schemes under which such requirements may be fulfilled by using green certificates;
- renewable energy purchase agreement
means a contract under which a natural or legal person agrees to purchase renewable energy directly from a producer, which encompasses, but is not limited to, renewables power purchase agreements and renewables heating and cooling purchase agreements;
- renewable energy quantity for cooling
means the cooling supply that has been generated with a specified energy efficiency expressed as a Seasonal Performance Factor calculated in primary energy;
- renewable fuels
means biofuels, bioliquids, biomass fuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin;
- renewable fuels of non-biological origin
means liquid and gaseous fuels the energy content of which is derived from renewable sources other than biomass;
- renewables acceleration area
means a specific location or area, whether on land, sea or inland waters, which a Member State designated as particularly suitable for the installation of renewable energy plants;
- renewables power purchase agreement
means a contract under which a natural or legal person agrees to purchase renewable electricity directly from an electricity producer;
- renewables self-consumer
means a final customer operating within its premises located within confined boundaries or, where permitted by a Member State, within other premises, who generates renewable electricity for its own consumption, and who may store or sell self-generated renewable electricity, provided that, for a non-household renewables self-consumer, those activities do not constitute its primary commercial or professional activity;
- repowering
means renewing power plants that produce renewable energy, including the full or partial replacement of installations or operation systems and equipment for the purposes of replacing capacity or increasing the efficiency or capacity of the installation;
- residual energy mix
means the total annual energy mix for a Member State, excluding the share covered by cancelled guarantees of origin;
- residue
means a substance that is not the end product(s) that a production process directly seeks to produce;
- Severely degraded land
means land that, for a significant period of time, has either been significantly salinated or presented significantly low organic matter content and has been severely eroded.
- smart metering system
means a smart metering system as defined in Article 2, point (23), of Directive (EU) 2019/944 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
- smart recharging
means a recharging operation in which the intensity of electricity delivered to the battery is adjusted dynamically, on the basis of information received through electronic communication;
- SME
means a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise as defined in Article 2 of the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC;
- solar energy equipment
means equipment that converts energy from the sun into thermal or electrical energy, in particular solar thermal and solar photovoltaic equipment;
- solar-electric vehicle
means a motor vehicle equipped with a powertrain containing only non-peripheral electric machines as energy converter, with an electric rechargeable energy storage system which can be recharged externally, and with vehicle-integrated photovoltaic panels;
- sourcing area
means the geographically defined area from which the forest biomass feedstock is sourced, from which reliable and independent information is available and where conditions are sufficiently homogeneous to evaluate the risk of the sustainability and legality characteristics of the forest biomass;
- starch-rich crops
means crops comprising mainly cereals, regardless of whether the grains alone or the whole plant, such as in the case of green maize, are used;
- state of charge
means state of charge as defined in Article 3(1), point (27), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542;
- state of health
means state of health as defined in Article 3(1), point (28), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542;
- support scheme
means any instrument, scheme or mechanism applied by a Member State, or a group of Member States, that promotes the use of energy from renewable sources by reducing the cost of that energy, increasing the price at which it can be sold, or increasing, by means of a renewable energy obligation or otherwise, the volume of such energy purchased, including but not restricted to, investment aid, tax exemptions or reductions, tax refunds, renewable energy obligation support schemes including those using green certificates, and direct price support schemes including feed-in tariffs and sliding or fixed premium payments;
- system efficiency
means the selection of energy-efficient solutions where they also enable a cost-effective decarbonisation pathway, additional flexibility and the efficient use of resources;
- typical value
means an estimate of the greenhouse gas emissions and greenhouse gas emissions savings for a particular biofuel, bioliquid or biomass fuel production pathway, which is representative of the Union consumption;
- useful heat
shall mean heat generated to satisfy an economical justifiable demand for heat, for heating or cooling purposes;
- ventilation
means the natural or forced movement of air to introduce ambient air inside a space with the aim to ensure appropriate indoor air quality, including temperature;
- waste
means waste as defined in point (1) of Article 3 of Directive 2008/98/EC, excluding substances that have been intentionally modified or contaminated in order to meet this definition;
- waste heat and cold
means unavoidable heat or cold generated as by-product in industrial or power generation installations, or in the tertiary sector, which would be dissipated unused in air or water without access to a district heating or cooling system, where a cogeneration process has been used or will be used or where cogeneration is not feasible;