The City of Kortrijk installed a pilot heatnet at Kortrijk Weide, as a nucleus for further extensions in the city. The feasibility to install a heatnet backbone from the waste incinerator at the outskirts of the city, along the River Leie, to the city center was researched. As many building projects are taking place along the river, this would create the opportunity to connect over 1,000 households.
The biomass heating plant and district heating grid in Güttenbach (Austria) was built in 1997. The boilers are fired with wood chips from local forests. There are two boilers installed, one biomass boiler with 1 MW capacity and one oil boiler for peak load and backup with 1.3 MW capacity. The village of Güttenbach has about 900 inhabitants and an area of 16 km2. The district heating grid has a length of 12 km with about 240 connected consumers. Each year there are 5,200 MWh heat sold to the consumers.
Matosinhos’ year-round mild weather makes the challenge of decarbonising heating and cooling drastically different from more demanding climates, be it from a business-case as well as from a technical perspective.
Residential heat demand has historically been low. It is expected that the improvements in the building stock will essentially result in an increase of the indoor temperatures, which are low, and therefore will contain any pressure to increase the demand.
The growing services sector and still significant presence of an industrial sector further support them as the clear targets to address in terms of renewable heating and cooling.
This case study covers the investigation of renewable heat supply options for the new development area «Teilraum 31» in Ansfelden. The area is mainly owned by the municipality which, therefore, can define priorities regarding energy efficiency and renewable energy. The new development area could include ca. 120,000 m2. According to the current planning strategy, it will be used for different types of buildings – mainly residential ones, and could reach a plot ratio of 0,45 to 0,55 per building lot. The expected buildings consist of around 100 single-family houses, 200 row houses and 10 small multi-family houses.
As the district heating system in Herten is currently supplied with heat from coal-fired Combined Heat & Power (CHP), the approach was to frame a potential alternative mix of centralised heat supply units with a high share of renewable energy sources. It is aimed at designing a system which is technically feasible and to compare it to the current system with regard to the heating costs.
In 2008, the Regional Municipality of Bornholm decided to become a 100% sustainable and CO2-neutral society in 2025, in which only sustainable and renewable energy is used. In 2019, already 60% of the island’s energy is produced fossil-free by using wind, sun and biomass power. The island’s green vision, big share of renewable energy, citizen and community involvement and replicability of the energy solution helped in winning the 2019 RESponsible Island Prize.