EU Tracker – Local heating and cooling plans in Latvia
Summary
What is the status of the transposition of Art 25.6(EDD) and its implementation ?
LLatvia is not well prepared to implement Article 25.6 of the EED and has not yet transposed the directive. New legislation and the establishment of a comprehensive support framework will be needed.
Unlike other Nordic and Baltic countries, Latvia has no regulatory framework in place for local heat planning. Latvia lacks a sufficient national support for local energy planning. Progress made locally for renewable energy integration and efficiency in district heating has mainly emerged from specific (often EU funded) projects and have with few exceptions not been carried out strategically or linked with spatial planning. Latvian municipalities currently lack access to a proper support framework for strategic heating or energy planning and have limited staff available for these purposes. Some promising work is undertaken regarding data access. Access to harmonised data platforms would integrate better data processing and analysis at the municipal level.
Detailed assessment
The legal framework and the obligations
No legal obligation or encouragement to draft local heating and cooling plans, and for local energy planning in general
Overview of the legal frameworks per governance level in Latvia
| National | Latvia’s main energy policy objectives are defined in Latvia’s National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) 2021-2030, submitted in 2019. The NECP contains a renewable energy target of 57.59 % to 2030 for the production of heat and cooling energy. While Latvia, like most other Baltic and Nordic states, has a high share of District heating, no specific law has yet been established solely for the heating sector. Technical regulatory aspects related to heating is covered by the Latvian Energy Law (adopted in 1998 and last amended in 2022), which contains no obligations related to heat planning. The Energy Efficiency Act grants the right to national and local authorities to develop and adopt an energy efficiency plan, which should include energy efficiency targets and measures. |
| Local | In 2024, the City of Riga adopted binding heat supply regulations. These regulations address the assessment of heat demand and the planning for renewable heat. The new requirements envisage a gradual phase-out of fossil fuel energy use (e.g., natural gas), as well as a reduction in air pollution, while simultaneously supporting heating from renewable sources. Among other things, these new regulations stipulate the following: – When constructing a new building or replacing old boilers, priority is given to centralized heat supply or renewable heating sources. – If neither centralized heat supply nor heat pump systems are available or technically feasible, investments in efficient biomass or gas heating are permitted. – Permits for the installation of new gas boilers from January 1, 2026, will be issued only in rare cases, if there are absolutely no other options and appropriate economic justification has been developed. Permits can be used for five years from the date of issue, allowing boilers to be installed until 2031. |
The support framework
A largely absent financial and technical support for drafting local heating and cooling plans
In Latvia, there are no specific national or regional funding programs available solely for energy planning. Municipalities are largely reliant on EU-funded projects to fund decarbonisation activities without specific technical assistance or funding programmes provided by the national level. Latvian Municipalities meanwhile have overall small staffing resources available for energy planning purposes, and external contractors are often recruited for specific project needs. Energy-related geodata is generally available upon request but rarely detailed or harmonised, which adds to the costs associated with the drafting of heating and cooling plans.
Provided Support
| Technical and organisational | 1/5 | There are no specific technical support measures, guidelines, or resources allocated by the national government to assist municipalities with energy planning. The main avenue for assistance is through EU-funded projects, which has enabled Latvian municipalities to participate in pilot projects and implement more efficient and non-fossil heating technologies. Enerģētika, a national research and innovation program, has been used to support projects related to district heating. Additionally, the country issues regular updates through the National Research Programme (NRP), which highlights the current state of development for heating and cooling systems in Latvia. These initiatives play an important role in promoting progress and innovation in the energy domain within the country. There are also several research programs in increasing the share of renewable energies in heating and cooling carried out by the University of Riga. |
| Financial | 1/5 | No specific EU, national or regional-level funding programs have been dedicated to strategic and integrated energy planning in Latvia, which remain largely projects-based. Projects in heating and cooling are focused mainly in energy efficiency and improving the current district heating systems. Among the EU funded projects, the EU structural funds promote energy efficiency measures and the use of local RES in district heating, while Horizon Europe has also been used to reduce emissions and improve the efficiency of district heating systems. The Latvian state has allocated up to 30% funding for energy efficiency improvements in buildings until 2030. |
| Staff & skills | 2/5 | Latvian municipalities outside Riga have little staff allocated to energy planning, and receive no support from the national government for staff training and capacity building. Expertise is hence often allocated on an ad-hoc basis for a limited duration to address specific project needs, assuming specific responsibilities, from planning to approval and follow-up. |
| Access to data | 2/5 | Latvia has no centralised platform available for energy-related geodata. Riga, its capital, has developed the geospatial data platform ‘Geo Riga’, with some harmonised data available for energy planning purposes, and is currently building a data repository for building transition pathways supported by EU Citycalc project. Most of the data on the technical and economic potential of renewable energy sources, the energy demand for buildings and other buildings-related information (such as energy performance standards, heating system and heating fuels) is currently only available upon request and has in many cases not been collected and digitised. This reduces the data readily available for assessing and modelling the structure of heating supply and demand in the Latvian built environment. Municipalities have however access to the spatial position and capacity of energy grid infrastructure. Although renewable energy maps for the technical and economic potential of RES at national level have been produced, detailed assessments based on more granular data is lacking. The absence of centralised data platforms and restricted data access poses a significant obstacle and large additional costs associated with the drafting of heating and cooling plans in Latvia |
