District energy is a community-based solution that plays a key role in the sustainable cities we want to live in. The developed district heating and cooling solutions are there to be replicated elsewhere!
A growing number of cities worldwide are adopting modern district energy solutions, as the best way to bring sustainable heating and cooling to these dense urban areas. The refurbishment, construction and expansion of district energy network, combining district heating and district cooling, integrating and balancing a large share of renewable power, serving as thermal storage, are prerequisites for the smart energy systems of the future.
The European Commission has been funding projects in the sector of district heating and cooling that are innovative and advancing the state of the art of district energy networks to drive the energy transition. These projects have been collected and analysed by the Celsius Initiative in the recently published Overview of Support Activities and Projects of the European Commission on District Heating & Cooling.
Alessandro Provaggi, Euroheat & Power:
– “The EU funded projects featured in this publication lead the way towards sustainable solutions at local level in cities and communities all over the European Union. I believe I speak on behalf of all partners involved in saying that we are enormously grateful to the European Commission and its agencies for their support in getting all these projects off the ground and their continued help throughout their lifetime.”
This brochure is meant to foster the uptake of DHC solutions in cities and is therefore structured in a way that makes the solutions easy to find: Chapter 2.1 gives an overview of all projects that are part of the brochure in a concise way. Each solution is rated with its replication potential (from one to five stars 1*-5*****), so you can see immediately if this solution can potentially be implemented in your city.
In Chapters 2.2-2.10 you can browse projects by category. If you are interested in a particular topic, this is the place to find all projects focussing on a specific area. It provides a high-level overview and analysis of the current state of the art in research.
Finally, for more in-depth content, consult Chapter 3 – Annex that gathers all project fiches in alphabetical order. The project fiches have been designed with cities and their needs in mind and go well beyond generic information provided on the project websites. They not only provide a summary of the projects, the demonstration sites, and include the contact details for reaching out, but also give answers to the most pressing questions when looking into replicating these solutions: “what is the solution”, “why should I use it”, details on environmental impact of the solution, etc.
This brochure focuses on the Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation (2016-2020), including projects funded under the LIFE programme, and will also be updated with the Green Deal call DHC projects.
If you would like to know more or contribute to this brochure, please contact Aksana Krasatsenka.