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Tthe Regional Government of Castile and Leon and the Valladolid City Council have signed up an agreement that will allow the creation of the third biomass heating network in the city. The 'West Valladolid' Sustainable Heating Network project, whose first works will go out to tender today, is scheduled for commissioning for the 2023-2024 heating season.
In concrete numbers, the “West Valladolid” will supply heating and hot water to 10,200 homes and 67 buildings in the neighbourhoods of Villa del Prado, Parquesol and the southwest area of ​​Huerta del Rey. It will involve a total investment of 30 million euros plus VAT and the creation of 72 jobs. It will also save users between 30% and 50% of their energy bill, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 31,300 tons of CO2/year and increasing the energy independence of Castile and Leon.

EESIP, the European Energy Social Innovation Platform, is designed with one purpose in mind: to empower and support professionals in the renewable energy sector specifically working on social innovation and citizen engagement.
This platform enables professionals not only to gather information and knowledge, but also to share good practices and new resources and work collaboratively.

Electricity from heat pumps, combined with a shift to renewables in district heat networks, emerged as the winning technologies to drive the Finnish capital’s transition to carbon neutrality by 2035.

Finland has “a very strict target” to become carbon neutral by 2035 and the same goal applies to its capital city, said Kaisa-Reeta Koskinen, manager at the Carbon Neutral Helsinki project.

Helsinki has a huge challenge decarbonising its district heating system, which is currently entirely fuelled with coal and gas, she told a EURACTIV virtual event on 20 May.

Big solar thermal projects are the right solution for district heating decarbonization in Serbia because solar collectors on the ground are easy and inexpensive to install, but also because Serbia has high insolation per square meter, according to a panel on solar thermal as an element of sustainable urban energy systems in the process of the energy transition, held as part of the First Big Conference on Solar Energy in Serbia.

I juni måned 1978 blev Danish Board of District Heating stiftet som eksportorganisation for en række danske virksomheder. Formålet med rådet var at fremme salg af danske leverancer og dansk viden inde

L'Ademe a publié ce 18 novembre une étude dressant le bilan du développement de la filière réseaux de chaleur et de froid et explorant pour la première fois le potentiel socio-économique ainsi que les bénéfices environnementaux liés à un développement accru de la filière à l'horizon 2050. Ce travail vise notamment à éclairer le choix des collectivités qui souhaitent accélérer leur transition énergétique, alors qu'il est prévu de multiplier par trois le rythme de croissance des énergies renouvelables dans les réseaux de chaleur pour atteindre les objectifs des politiques publiques d'ici à 2030.

Decarbonizing is a big issue
– and the theme of this issue of Hot Cool.
It is all about solutions reducing CO2 emissions - linked to the district heating network, utilizing excess electricity from wind turbines and solar cells, surplus heat from data-centers, eFuel production, and heat pumps absorbing energy from the ocean.

Studies estimate that the EU produces more waste heat than the demand of its entire building stock. The urgency to fight climate change calls for a radical transformation of the energy system in the coming decades. The deployment of renewables and waste heat used in district heating (DH) networks is part of the solution to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

The closure of the last coal-fired cogeneration plant moves the city much closer to its goal of becoming fossil fuel-free by 2040
Operations at the coal-fired cogeneration plant KVV6 at Värtaverket, which has supplied heat and electricity to Stockholmers since 1989, ground to a halt on 16 April. This event made no ripples in the coronavirus-dominated media mix, but it was worth mentioning. Now that the last remaining facility of this type in Sweden’s capital has been shut down, the city's has come much closer to its ambitious target of being fossil fuel-free by 2040.

Charleroi mise sur un plan de rénovation énergétique déjà en cours. En effet, plusieurs zones de la ville au passé industriel sont en cours de réurbanisation et la Ville veut en profiter pour évaluer le potentiel énergétique de ces zones afin de permettre la planification de réseaux qui permettraient de gérer au mieux les flux d'énergie. D'autre part, les autorités communales ont analysé les potentielles sources d'énergies locales et renouvelables offertes par leur territoire. La région dispose en effet de certaines ressources liées à son passé minier. Le potentiel géothermique découlant de l'ancienne exploitation minière de la région est très important et proche du centre-ville. De plus, le gaz de mines, aussi appelé grisou, s'accumule dans certains puits de mine et pourrait être utilisé pour générer assez de chaleur et d'électricité pour alimenter plusieurs milliers de ménages. La Ville de Charleroi envisage également de produire de l'énergie via la valorisation de la biomasse, qui consiste à utiliser les déchets de bois issus du secteur de l'industrie ou des recyparcs. L'hydrogène et le solaire sont aussi évoqués comme sources d'énergie possibles. Afin de répartir ces flux d'énergie à travers la ville, Charleroi mise sur la construction de réseaux de chaleur, un système qui permet de distribuer à l'échelle d'une ville la chaleur produite par plusieurs chaufferies, situées dans des endroits différents, via des canalisations.

“Digital district heating networks” obviously do not mean we will be heating digits in the future ("Throw a few more bytes on the fire, Mike, and it will flare up"). But what does it imply then? Well, 'digital district heating networks', written in full 'the digitalisation of heating by using heat networks as a transport medium', are essentially the addition of an information and communication layer on top of the infrastructure of district heating networks, with a high degree of connectivity between the various infrastructure elements.

District Heating is an efficient way to heat homes, particularly in a country like Latvia where 58% of its primary energy consumption is used for heating. But Selīna Vancāne at Riga City Council is very concerned that the draft EU Recovery plans do not include any support under the climate goals for district heating projects. Perhaps it’s because of a blind spot: most of Europe is prioritising individual heating units powered by electricity. Meanwhile, Latvia is tacking the issue of fuel sources for district heating. There’s gas (not clean, must be imported from Russia), woodchips (plenty of local supply, but has sustainability limits), and much better solutions like solar. Vancāne offers the case study of Salaspils Siltums, built in 6 months, which provides solar district heating to 85% of a town of 18,000 people. She urges the EU to fund both district heating and the new clean solutions it can use. The results can be cost effective, sustainable, efficient and curb emissions.

Denmark has led the way on decarbonisation of heating, with a rapid transition away from fossil fuels aided by its large scale adoption of heating networks over the past 40 years. Instead of exchanging individual heating appliances in every home and commercial building, the Danes are centrally converting their heat networks to renewable energy, saving citizens a pile of money in the process

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Asper Investment Management Ltd. have signed an investment agreement worth €30 million for investments in four district heating projects in the Netherlands. This agreement will enable the EIB to consider additional investments into new district heating projects in the Netherlands up to €70 million.
The EIB financing supports an equity investment vehicle called “Dorothea” that will build a diversified portfolio of projects in various Dutch municipalities. Dorothea was set up by Asper Investment Management, a specialised investment firm, to acquire and build an exclusive portfolio of sustainable district heating projects in the Netherlands. The EIB is joined in Dorothea by four other leading institutional investors and will be a member of Dorothea’s Investor Committee.

With the Energy Transition Tracker launched today, the Secretariat starts monitoring the energy transition in the Western Balkans. The first edition sheds light on the WB6 emissions footprint, energy market development, penetration of renewables, energy efficiency measures and progress in the development of integrated national energy and climate plans.

From next year on, the vast majority of all new buildings in Vienna will be located in climate protection areas. In these areas, heating, cooling, and hot water must be provided either by renewable energy such as ambient heat (heat pumps) or biomass or by district heating. The requirement does not differentiate between building types: residential buildings, offices, shops, but also public buildings such as schools or kindergartens. In the long term, fossil fuel will be a thing of the past.