The DH System of Bolzano in South Tyrol (northern Italy) was initiated in 1986 in order to satisfy a social housing district’s need for heat. From the end of the 1990 years began expansion, optimisation and from 2008 took place a massive expansion, made possible through the construction of a new waste incineration plant. Thus, a strong reduction of CO2 emission was possible despite a massive expansion of the network.
Companies, Universities and NGOs are working together to green the Lombardian economy! A2A Calore e Servizi, Alfa Acciai, University of Brescia and DHPlanet have pursued the common goal of creating an innovative and efficient system for the recovery of energy from industrial thermal waste, deriving from the Alfa Acciai production site, in order to contribute to the supply of the district heating network already serving the city of Brescia.
As part of the decarbonization project of the Brescia city energy system promoted by A2A (Italian multi-utility, operating in the environment, energy, heat, grids and technologies for smart cities sectors. District heating operator), which will make the city “Carbon Free”, there are two important circular economy projects that see heat recovery as the protagonist from production plants, specifically from steel mills.
Turboden will design and install an innovative industrial heat pump (Large Heat Pump) of about 5-7 MWth at the ORI Martin steel plant, through which it will be possible to increase (with the addition of electricity) the waste heat coming from the waste thermal low temperature of the steel plant from around 70 ° C to 120 ° C, the optimum temperature to then transfer it to the A2A district heating network.
An agreement between A2A Calore & Servizi and REA DALMINE (waste to energy plant), owned by Greenthesis Group, will lead to a 50% increase in the heat available in the district heating network of the City of Bergamo.
Warmtenetwerk Zaanstad B.V. has created the first open district heating network in the Netherlands in Zaanstad-Oost. This organization is a partnership between the municipality of Zaanstad, Firan, and the provincial authority of Noord-Holland. Thanks to the open structure, all suppliers and customers will ultimately be able to use the heating infrastructure under the same conditions. The district heating network, which has supplied heat to an existing residential district since 2019, is powered by a local small-scale biomass plant in this early phase. In the future, we will also be able to connect newly constructed homes and create links for new products, suppliers and users.
The ENNSHAFEN port, located in Enns, is the newest and most modern public port in Austria. Several local stakeholders are committed to invest in various types of energy cooperation: PV modules on (large) company roofs or other areas at the Ennshafen site, utilization of waste heat flux at Ennshafen between relevant companies, cooperation of companies regarding electricity (supply and demand) and gas (supply and demand), and electrification of the power supply of anchored
ships.
In Lund there is a high activity to demonstrate the latest solutions in many fields. One such field is to construct the largest LTDH network based on fossil fuel free waste energy. Kraftringen Energi (Lund’s energy and utility company) and its partners develop concepts for energy, mobility and lighting for the infrastructure. The construction will start in 2018 in the district of Brunnshög to become Europe’s largest LTDH facility and test field for LTDH solutions. The total development will cover 100 ha over time. This way, the city can keep growing without increasing the GHG emissions. The biomass presently used in the DH system can be used elsewhere to replace fossil fuels.
In Høje-Taastrup (Copenhagen) a project is established that will innovate, demonstrate, evaluate and disseminate technological solutions
needed to exploit and use sources of very low-grade “waste” heat for heating of energy efficient
buildings via Low Temperature District Heating (LTDH) and show how the District Heating (DH)
systems can be more resource efficient and more energy efficient. The demonstration covers both
new developments and stepwise transition of existing areas with district heating and energy
retrofitting of buildings.
The GRENOBLE-ALPES-METROPOLIS district heating, with its 170 km of liquid pressurized
water distribution pipes, is the second largest District Heating System in France (900 GWh). The
district heating is a strong part of the energy strategy of the city. The integration of renewable and recovery energy accelerates and solutions are deployed to achieve
a 100% RE District Heating in 2033. State of the art solutions (biomass, waste heat from incineration
plant, geothermal energy) are combined with innovative solution (storage, CO2 capture, smart control) .