District heating should be a dream come true for climate policy makers, according to Jes B. Christensen, Managing Director of the Danish Board of District Heating. Energy efficient, capable of using renewable energy sources and able to cut CO2 emissions, Christensen wants to know what is keeping the technology from spreading.

District heating – which uses water heated in central incinerators to heat buildings in the nearby area - is already an important source of heating in Denmark as well as countries such as Iceland, Sweden and the Netherlands. But on the whole, only ten per cent of Europe’s heating needs are covered using district heating.

In order to illustrate the CO2 benefits of district heating, COWI has calculated that Denmark could cut its emissions by up to 50 per cent if it increased its reliance on district heating by between 15 and 20 per cent.

On the EU's agenda“Forty per cent of the EU’s energy consumption goes to home heating,” Christensen explains. “Countries should require the use of district heating generated from surplus heat from power plants and sustainable sources wherever it makes sense. Energy efficiency should be our most important consideration.”

Britta Thompsen, from the Danish Social Democratic Party and a representative of Denmark in the European Parliament who also sits on its energy commission, points out that district heating and cooling were included in the sustainable energy directive passed by the European Parliament in 2008, and which takes effect in mid-2009.

Although Parliament will not require countries to use district heating – “some countries don’t even need to heat their buildings,” Thompsen says – district heating can help countries meet their 2020 sustainable energy requirements, she believes.

Enormous potential for district heatingAlthough district heating has an “enormous potential,” according to Christensen, it remains just as unknown outside of the EU as it is within.

“Over the past three decades, Denmark has built up an enormous amount of expertise when it comes to district heating.”

For years, COWI has been involved with district heating and cooling projects from the Shetland Islands to Mongolia to China. Head of Department of Energy in COWI Jens Ole Hansen expects that concerns about global warming could be the technology’s big break.

“District heating and cooling are two of the best ways to cut CO2 emissions and two key elements in sustainability programmes. We need to market the technology, and we need to keep documenting its climate benefits,” Hansen points out.

By Eva Isager
Published: 05.03.2009