International Energy Agency
The International Energy Agency (IEA; French: Agence internationale de l’énergie) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. The IEA was initially dedicated to responding to physical disruptions in the supply of oil, as well as serving as an information source on statistics about the international oil market and other energy sectors.
This perspective has broadened over the years and encompasses nowadays a large number of Energy Technologies and markets ranked in Technology Collaboration Programs (TCP).
These programmes support the work of independent, international groups of experts that enable governments and industries from around the world to lead programmes and projects on a wide range of energy technologies and related issues. The experts in these collaborations work to advance the research, development and commercialisation of energy technologies.
The international collaborative work funded by participating countries is done in so called ‘Annexes’ of ‘Tasks’. The work undertaken under the Annex 46 on Heat Pump Water Heaters was initiated under the TCP on Heat Pumping Technologies (HPT TCP)
The mission of the HPT TCP is to accelerate the transformation to an efficient, renewable, clean and secure energy sector in its member countries and beyond through collaboration research, demonstration and data collection and through enabling innovations and deployment in the area of heat pumping technologies. Under the HPT TCP a triennial Conference is organized. The last one has been in Rotterdam 2017 and the 2020 Conference has been scheduled one year later and hybrid (Partly on-line) in Jeju. The HPT TCP also issues a quarterly Heat Pump Technologies Magazine.
International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR)
The International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) is an independent intergovernmental organisation. It is the only one in the world to gather scientific and technical knowledge in every sector of refrigeration. Founded in 1908, it has developed a worldwide network of leading experts.
The IIR has a number of activities organized:
- Technical commissions, Heat Pumping Technologies is handled under Commission E2 – Heat pumps and Energy Recovery. It promotes and enhances scientific and technological knowledge in heat pump and energy recovery fields thanks to various activities such as the organisation or co-sponsoring of international conferences, or the publication of books and Informatory Notes.
- Conferences on a number of topics:
- IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, next Conference is in 2023 in Paris
- IIR-Gustav Lorentzen Conference on Natural Refrigerants, nerxt Conference is in 2022 in Trondheim
- IIR Conference on Thermophysical Properties and Transfer Processes of Refrigerants
- IIR Conference on Compressors and Refrigerants
- International Journal of Refrigeration, which is published for the IIR by Elsevier, as flagship with scientific articles. It is essential reading for all those wishing to keep abreast of research and industrial news in refrigeration, air conditioning and associated fields.
- FRIDOC, an extensdive database for refrigeration information
Related IEA Programs
The EBC TCP, created in 1977, carries out research and development efforts towards near-zero energy and carbon emissions in the built environment. Activities under the EBC TCP focus on the integration of energy-efficient and sustainable technologies into healthy buildings and communities.
The mission of ECES TCP is to facilitate R&D, implementation and integration of energy storage technologies to optimise the energy efficiency of all kinds of energy systems and enable the increasing use of renewable energy. Energy storage is a cross-cutting issue that relies on expert knowledge of many disciplines.
Through multi-disciplinary international collaborative research and knowledge exchange, as well as market and policy recommendations, the SHC TCP works to increase the deployment rate of solar heating and cooling systems by breaking down the technical and non-technical barriers to increase deployment.
The TCP is a strategic platform to support high-level government attention and action for the development and deployment of smarter, cleaner electricity grids. Operating as an initiative of the Clean Energy Ministerial, and as a TCP, the ISGAN TCP provides an channel for communication of experience, trends, lessons learned, and visions in support of clean energy objectives as well as new flexible and resilient solutions for smart grids.
Established in 1993, the TCP supports international collaborative efforts to enhance the role of photovoltaic solar energy (PV) as a cornerstone in the transition to sustainable energy systems. The PVPS TCP seeks to serve as a global reference for policy and industry decision makers; to act as an impartial and reliable source of information on trends, markets and costs; and to provide meaningful guidelines and recommended practices for state-of-the-art PV applications.
The 4E TCP promotes energy efficiency as the key to ensuring safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy systems. As an international platform for collaboration between governments, the 4E TCP provides policy guidance to its members and other governments concerning energy using equipment and systems. The 4E TCP prioritises technologies and applications with significant energy consumption and energy saving potential .