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District heat build-up in Norway 

Norway's second-largest city is expanding its waste-to-energy plant, enabling it to handle more waste.

Bergen's expansion of its waste-to-energy plant puts Norway's second largest city at the leading edge of a sustainable heat wave rolling in from the south.

While district heating has become a household term in Denmark, further to the north, in Norway, the concept of pumping water heated in a central incinerator to nearby homes is still a foreign concept.

Rich in hydroelectric power, most Norwegian homes have electricity as their primary heat source, supplemented by wood, oil and gas. But the country is starting to warm up to the sustainable energy source.

Electricity and heatBergen, Norway's second largest city, is in the process of expanding the capacity of its waste-to-energy plant so that by 2010 it will be able to call itself home to Norway's second largest incinerator, capable of turning 220,000 tonnes of waste a year into electricity and heat.

Many buildings in Norway already rely on district heating, including businesses and factories, as well as old apartment complexes built with oil as their primary source of heat and new developments where district heating pipes can be installed at the same time as other utilities.

Room to expand
Bergen's new incinerator will accompany the existing one, which was build ten years ago. Together they will pump out the 150 GWh of heat currently required in Bergen, but their total capacity will also be enough to supply the 300 GWh the city will use in 2020.

The reason for expanding the capacity is a rapid increase in waste volumes in Norway, together with a law that will come into effect in July which will ban disposal of biodegradable waste in landfills.

New ways to warm upProject management for the incinerator expansion is the joint responsibility of COWI Norway and COWI Denmark. Both are also assisting in the expansion of Bergen's district heating system.

“Right now, district heating only provides Norway with a fraction of its heating needs,” says COWI Norway project manager Ole Johan Valle. “Our goal, though, is to use district heating generated from waste and bio-fuels as a replacement for not just oil, but also imported electricity generated in coal-fired power plants in Europe.”

By Eva Isager
Published: 05.03. 2009

LAST UPDATED: 13.01.2012