Supporting a fast implementation of low-grade renewable energy and waste heat for district heating and cooling

Introduction

The overall objective of the SUPPORT DHC project is to support a fast implementation of low-grade renewable energy (RE) and waste heat (WH) for district heating and cooling (DHC) in Europe. This is achieved by supporting DHC operators in drawing up transformation plans leading to efficient DHC systems as defined in the Energy Efficiency Directive revision and, in particular, concrete investment plans for a fast implementation of packages of low-grade RE and WH measures.

Project Scope

In six European countries (AT, DE, IT, LT, PL, UA), the SUPPORT DHC project, in cooperation with involved DHC operators, demonstrates such processes and leads to investments on the ground for a variety of EU-wide DHC system cases.

Support Approach

The support of DHC operators is rolled out through a 3-step approach:

1. Extensive support is provided to 11 DHC frontrunner cases.
2. A minimum of 27 follower cases are selected during the project and supported.
3. More than 100 DHC operators are reached by replicating support services also in countries beyond the SUPPORT DHC target countries.

Capacity Building

The project further aims at capacity building of DHC operators for managing and steering such processes, as well as of the specific service providers and other stakeholders for supporting transformation and investment planning.

Policy and Regulatory Impact

At the policy and regulatory level, local and regional authorities will become enablers of transformation measures as the project addresses solutions for removing barriers and framework shortcomings. Furthermore, at national and EU levels, market and framework barriers and solutions will be identified and fed into the political decision-making processes.

Dissemination of Knowledge

Know-how gained in the SUPPORT DHC project will be disseminated to further EU DHC markets, and replication will be actively organized.