Local sustainable district energy cases from across Europe

In the progRESsHEAT project, six local cases are analysed. The main objective of the progRESsHEAT project is to support policy makers and public authorities at local, regional and national level in the development and implementation of integrated strategies and policies to enforce the use of renewable and efficient heating and cooling solutions in their regions.The main pillar of the strategy development process are local case studies for six municipalities.

The goal of these case studies is to develop heating and cooling strategies through a profound analysis of (1) heating and cooling demands with respect to future developments, (2) long-term potentials of renewable energies and waste heat in the regions, (3) barriers & drivers and (4) a model based assessment of policy intervention in scenarios up to 2050 together with the authorities.For this purpose we apply a geographic information system (GIS) and map the energy demands based on modelling of buildings and industry, the potential RE sources (including biomass, solar, geothermal, etc.) as well as waste heat sources and the existing energy production plants locally for each municipality.

The district energy system of each municipality is then modelled in a coherent energy system analysis tool (EnergyPRO) which combines the detailed demand side modelling with the geographical overview of the resources and the existing production plants. The costs of providing district energy is then entered into acost curve tool where the cheapest solution is found, depending on the location and type of building, comparing 1) district energy costs to 2) costs of increased energy efficiency and 3) costs of individual energy solutions.

Thereby, the most cost effective solutions to increase RES heating and cooling at local level are identified.Recent results from the local case studies will be presented, illustrating business cases for district heating in different regions in EU as well as the key success factors and main challenges and barriers for increased efficiency and sustainability of the European heating and cooling sector.