Despite its small size, the solar district heating system in Lodi, close to Milan, is one of few in Italy to feed surplus heat into a local network. Since March 2017, heat produced by a 192 m² solar thermal installation is used as a heating source.
Assens Fjernvarme (Denmark) has supplemented their existing wood chip combined heat and power plant and an existing wind turbine with a solar cell system and an air to water heat pump system. This unique combination of renewable energy sources makes it possible to combine a low price for heat consumers with the production of green electricity when the electricity market needs electricity and purchase electricity from the electricity grid when there is a surplus of green electricity in the grid.
In 2003, a hydrogen strategy was developed by the Government of Aragon. Its main objective is the development of new hydrogen technologies integrated with renewable energies and the promotion of Aragon’s incorporation to economic activities related to the use of hydrogen as an energy vector. To that end, the organisation, management, and execution of a wide range of actions in order to generate, store and transport hydrogen for its use in fuel cells, in transport applications or for the generation of distributed energy is carried out. The Government of Aragon aims to encourage research, technological development, cogeneration and industrial adaptation, contributing to industrial modernisation and the improvement of competitiveness. The implantation of projects based on sustainable energies that provide technological innovation and promote the energetic and environmental sustainability are favoured. Nowadays there are 73 members of the hydrogen strategy which are part of its Board and they belong to different sectors of interest.
Over the past several years, the Northern Netherlands has accelerated its hydrogen project pipeline together with its ambitions of becoming the leading European hydrogen ecosystem. The Northern Netherlands has received recognition as the leading European Hydrogen Valley developing a full-fledged green hydrogen value chain. Furthermore, multinationals have increasingly committed to the Northern Netherlands as their hydrogen ecosystem of choice, and regional governments have increased their commitments to realize the Northern Netherlands hydrogen ecosystem.
Green industrial areas are an important part of the transition to a sustainable economic system. This case shows how local policymakers connect the local renewable energy ambitions to concrete activities on a nearby industrial park. The park and the municipality cooperate together to create a green industrial area.
The city of Neustrelitz is a very ambitious municipality, especially in the areas of renewable energies, climate protection, and digitization. The local public utility company (Stadtwerke Neustrelitz), the municipality and the State Centre for Renewable Energy MV work hand in hand to promote the sustainable development of the municipality. The new city strategy for 2025 “green smart digital” unites the visions of the local actors. The development and implementation of a green business park is a further component in the realisation of the city vision 2025.
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.
Within a privately owned residential building a variety of technologies are implemented to reduce the energy consumption. Both a solar heating system and heat pump are connected to a boiler for the heating of water. This water is used as sanitary hot water. Space heating and cooling is achieved from fan coil units (FCUs); where hot or cold water circulates inside the convectors depending on the need. Finally, underfloor heating is established through a closed water pipe system, with a heat pump as heating source. The monitoring of the entire system takes place in one control unit.
In the south of Germany a small district heating network has been installed in the town of Mietraching/Bad Aibling. The main sources of district heating are a woodchip boiler, mainly used in cold days, and solar collectors, mainly used in the warm days. The solar collectors are connected to centralised and decentralised buffer tanks for energy storage. Furthermore, a gas installation is delivering peak load for in mid-winter. The district heating network supplies heating to about 130 households, 2 schools, office buildings and a hotel.
The district heating system of Brasov has gone through several transformations in the attempt to find a solution for the zones located within the urban agglomeration of Brașov. Unfortunately, the lack of vision and the misun- derstanding of the advantages of such a system, coupled with a legislation that allows for easily installing natural gas individual boilers, led to a situation where only 4% of the local population was still connected to the DH in 2014 (reference year of the project).The future of this system is directly linked to the local policies, which should be supported by the population, by the real estate developers and last but not least, by policy makers.
The current strategy is trying to provide insight into the renewable sources that could be used in the future in order to ensure energy security and cost efficient heat supply at local level.