Cyprus, along with Malta, have the highest energy demand to keep buildings cool among EU states, while since 1979, the two countries recorded the highest yearly average of cooling degree days.
According to European Statistical Services (Eurostat) data, Cyprus recorded the most cooling degree days nationally, with 698.12 days, after Malta (842 days).
Regarding heating degree days, Cyprus recorded 695.96 days, finishing in the bottom two with Malta.
Cooling Degree Days (CDD) is a weather-based technical index that describes energy needs to cool (air-condition) buildings.
Accordingly, the Heating Degree Days index is a weather-based technical index designed to describe energy needed to meet buildings’ heating requirements.
The indices consider other factors such as the buildings’ location and orientation, design, insulation, use, the heating/cooling system, and the type of energy used.
Spain was third with 384 CDDs, followed by Italy (375) and Greece (372).
The lowest values were recorded in Ireland (0.03), Sweden (1.6), Finland (2.5), Denmark (3.4) and Latvia (13.6).
At the regional level, annual averages for all available data spanning over 43 years, from 1979 to 2022, show that the islands of Gozo and Comino in Malta needed, on average, 594 CDDs, followed by Cyprus with 580, Malta (577), Athens with 567 and the Greek islands with 566.
Meanwhile, the need for heating in the EU has decreased since 1979.
The overall value of heating degree days decreased by 19% between 1979 (3,510 HDDs) and 2022 (2,858 HDDs) in the EU.
In contrast, the value of cooling degree days was almost four times higher in 2022 (140) than in 1979 (37), indicating that the need for cooling (air conditioning) has increased significantly in recent decades.
The value of heating degree days varied significantly between EU states.
Finland recorded the highest annual value of heating degree days (5,277 days), in contrast to the lowest value observed in Malta (544 days).
Cyprus was second from the bottom with 696.
According to Eurostat, this means that for a building, heating needs were almost ten times higher in Finland than in Malta.
Finland was followed by Sweden (4,919) before Estonia (4,118), Latvia (4,026) and Lithuania (3,773).
