Library

Techno-economical possibilities and system correlations

This deliverable (2.3) has a twofold objective. Partly to complement the parallel deliverable 2.2 report “Draft recommendations for H/C outlook 2050”, and partly to identify and describe different possibilities and combinations for participating cities to explore, with respect to technical and economic strengths and weaknesses of the different low-carbon H/C supply choices available for (dense) urban areas.
19 July 2021
DOWNLOAD

Green gases in cities

Hydrogen, alternative gases and decarbonising cities: Biomethane still emits CO2 at combustion stage and potential methane through production and transportation. It is thus only net zero if the production method leads to additional capturing of CO2 or avoidance of waste. Hydrogen does not emit CO2 at the point of combustion, but there may still be (significant) lifecycle emissions include from: 1) Fossil gas production and transportation through methane leakage (for so called blue or turquoise hydrogen) 2) The limitations of the carbon capture method (the maximum achieved is so far 95%) 3) The electricity used to produce electrolysis hydrogen. As a result, sustainable gases are a scarce premium product and likely to be expensive. Between 1/10 th and ¼ of current fossil gas use by 2050 at EU level.
22 April 2022
DOWNLOAD

Waste heat in district energy

Waste heat is heat generated from some process or infrastructure often emitted to the surrounding air.  The industrial waste heat recovery potential is large but it is still largely untapped- Sweden is world champion on waste heat recovery from industry into district energy: 9% of the heat supply. There is also waste heat generated in cities by the people living and  working in them- there is a potential to meet 10% of the heat demand in EU 28 by using urban waste heat.
22 April 2022
DOWNLOAD

Cost and energy modelling

The work with the heat plan must reflect the local political interests. You can e.g. focus on energy independence, (local) emission-free heating, low-noise heating (no heat pumps in urban areas) etc. Other criteria can be included, e.g. local business development, green transition, (reductions of pollution), better cities to live in, fuel poverty, sector-coupling. The plan may have other (and stronger), underlying, purposes rather than defining why the heat plan process is initiated in your municipality.
22 April 2022
DOWNLOAD

Guidance for cities developing Heating and Cooling plans

This guide explains possible procedures for creating a Heating and Cooling Map (H/C Map) and the necessary base maps. The documented procedure in this document is based on the city of Winterthur’s approach towards creating its H/C-plan. There are, of course, several other ways to elaborate an H/C-plan, depending on local framework conditions and taking into account local laws, economic aspects, building structures etc.
17 August 2022
DOWNLOAD

Dublin’s heating and cooling plan – Part of D3.3

Heating is a hugely important sector in Ireland when it comes to decarbonisation as it represents approximately 40% of energy demand (twice the demand of electricity) and is the worst performing sector in terms of renewable proportion (currently at 6.3% of total heat production) behind both electricity and transport. The majority of buildings in Dublin use gas fired heating. The gas grid covers practically the whole city, developed at national level by semi-state-owned companies without considering where DHC grids may be a better option.
26 September 2022
DOWNLOAD

Munich’s Heating and Cooling Plan – Part of D3.3

The construction sector is one of the largest consumers of energy and resources. Around 30% of global CO2 emissions and 40% of resource consumption are caused by the construction industry. In Germany, the construction sector is also responsible for 54% of waste generation. The provision of heating, hot water and electricity alone accounts for 40% of final energy consumption. This illustrates the huge influence of the construction sector on the consumption of resources and energy. The average lifespan of buildings between 50 and 100 years shows the social responsibility for future generations when it comes to the design of the built environment and the sustainable use of available resources. The aim of the Energy Plan for the City of Munich is to identify potential for energy savings and for the efficient, climate-friendly provision of energy for the heating and cooling of Munich’s building stock.
26 September 2022
DOWNLOAD

Bilbao’s Heating and cooling plan – Part of D3.3

Bilbao, as many cities in Europe, is working to reduce the damage caused by COVID-19 pandemic on its socioeconomic situation while it is getting over the remaining consequences of the last economic and financial global crisis. Bilbao possesses some tools which contribute positively to social cohesion and, therefore, to alleviate the consequences of the crisis. All that makes Bilbao’s social services system more efficient and helps to generate work opportunities for people at risk of exclusion. Bilbao now relies on a strong civil society basis which contributes building a city firmly related to people’s well-being.
26 September 2022
DOWNLOAD

Rotterdam’s heating and cooling plan – Part of D3.3

In line with the Paris Agreement, European agreements and the Climate Act, the Netherlands wants to significantly reduce CO2 emissions in the coming decades. Therefore, Rotterdam wants to be gas free and climate neutral by 2050. Currently, Rotterdam has 263,000 natural gas connections, which are mainly used for cooking, heating and hot running water. We must therefore start on time to ensure that all buildings in the city are natural gas-free before 2050. We will do this in phases, so that the city remains accessible during the heat transition and we can make optimal use of resources and people. To be able to make sufficient headway towards 2050, a number of components are required.
26 September 2022
DOWNLOAD

Vienna’s heating and cooling plan – Part of D3.3

The city of Vienna is the largest city in Austria, the fifth largest in the European Union and the second largest German-speaking city. Like many other cities across Europe, Vienna is facing continuous population growth. Furthermore, rising temperatures due to climate change is another challenge that urgently needs to be dealt with. Compared to other provinces in Austria, Vienna has the lowest energy consumption per capita. Nevertheless, a lot of fossil energy is still used for the city's energy supply. In the heating sector, natural gas and district heating dominate the market.
26 September 2022
DOWNLOAD

Winterthur’s heating and cooling plan – Part of D3.3

Winterthur is located in northeastern Switzerland about 20 km northeast from the City of Zurich. Winterthur has an own utility which provides electricity, water, gas, heat and waste-water-treatment. The first district heating was built in 1985 with the waste heat from the incineration-plant. The first H/C-plan was released in 1998. In the year 2011 it was revised the first time, since 2020 the H/C-plan undergoes the second revision.
26 September 2022
DOWNLOAD

Cross-city summary of heating and cooling plan – part of D3.3

In this cross-city summary the Heating and Cooling plan (H/C plan) of the cities of Bilbao, Dublin, Munich, Rotterdam, Vienna and Winterthur are summarized and compared. The summary will show differences between the cities, such as size and amount of district heating grids available within the cities and the similarities, such as the approach of using heat-density as a method to decide where district heating is a logical alternative for natural gas heating.
26 September 2022
DOWNLOAD

Report on exchange activities and lessons learned from transition experiments

The learning exchange activities of the Decarb City Pipes 2050 project focused on deepening knowledge and building capacity on various regulatory, technical, organisational, social and economic opportunities for cities on their path to fossil fuel phase-out.  
27 June 2023
DOWNLOAD

Recommendations to improve regulatory framework

Against the backdrop of the heating and cooling transition, each city's approach is not only fundamentally shaped by its local social, economic and geographic characteristics. The scope of each city government in defining actions to decarbonise the heating and cooling sector is also influenced - and oftentimes constrained - by the national and/or regional legal framework. For cities to pursue their own goals and contribute to regional and national ambitions, the legal and policy frameworks shaped by the fossil fuel past must be adapted to enable a sustainable energy future.  
27 June 2023
DOWNLOAD

Report on Data Availability, Sovereignty, Quality and Exchange in the Participating Cities, Policy Recommendations

This report focuses on the issues of data governance & sovereignty and data availability & quality. The results were generated through interviews with all participating cities, both in joint exchange rounds and in individual interview sessions.
27 June 2023
DOWNLOAD

Decarbonisation design-approaches based on urban typologies

The underlying task for this report was to develop design approaches for urban «H/C landscape typologies». These design approaches are based on a typology commonly found in European cities. Besides the newly developed typology, this report also includes existing findings from literature as well as relevant findings from the Decarb City Pipes 2050.
27 June 2023
DOWNLOAD

H/C outlook 2050 of cities with cross-city synthesis

This report is the second out of three consecutive accounts of a coherent methodological framework developed in the EU Horizon 2020 project Decarb City Pipes 2050 to define heating and cooling decarbonisation design approaches for cities based on urban typologies.
27 June 2023
DOWNLOAD

Training of cities on H/C tools & techniques.

The different tools and techniques presented to cities during knowledge transfer sessions tackled three different themes: green gases, waste heat, and cost and energy modelling.
Those exchanges brought a first step to the constitution of a community dedicated to decarbonise its heating and cooling systems. Proven tools and techniques already exist and are described in the different sections of this deliverable.
27 June 2023
DOWNLOAD

H/C plans of cities with cross-city synthesis [Full version].

As part of this project, each of the participating cities - Bilbao, Dublin, Munich, Rotterdam, Vienna and Winterthur – has had to create its own H/C plan. These plans are all presented in detail in this report.
27 June 2023
DOWNLOAD

Report on peer-to-peer learning activities.

When it comes to heat decarbonisation, there is no one-fits-all solution. Facing the plurality of situations and possible actions to take, local authorities are keen on hearing from each other’s experiences.
27 June 2023
DOWNLOAD

Recommendations for Cities’ H/C Supply & Demand in 2050

This report provides a set of recommendations that cities can follow when taking stock of their current heating and cooling supply and demand, looking ahead to a targeted heating system in the year 2050 (or earlier).
11 August 2023
DOWNLOAD

Transition Roadmaps of Cities with Cross-City Synthesis

In the transition towards fossil-free alternatives for heating and cooling, all cities face a significant challenge in transforming their building stock. The solutions available and the implementation pathways differ from city to city, depending on social, political, economic, and technological conditions. As part of this project, each of the participating cities – Bilbao, Dublin, Munich, Rotterdam, Vienna and Winterthur – has in the last couple of months created its own Transition Roadmap
18 August 2023
DOWNLOAD

Transition Roadmap – City of Bilbao

Bilbao is clearly committed to meet climate neutrality by 2050, and the Bilbao Environmental Strategy 2050 dissects this ambitious plan into a compendium of strategic lines in order to handle the mitigation of CO2 emissions and the adaptation to climate change.
29 September 2023
DOWNLOAD

Transition Roadmap – City of Dublin

Heating is a hugely important sector in Ireland when it comes to decarbonisation as it represents approximately 40% of energy demand (twice the demand of electricity) and is the worst performing sector in terms of renewable proportion (currently at 6.3% of total heat production) behind both electricity and transport. The district heating networks potential to enable greater uptake of renewable and waste heat sources is shown in the figure below, where there is a strong correlation between DH and renewable heat proportions. This relationship is now being recognised in national heat policy.
29 September 2023
DOWNLOAD

Transition Roadmap – City of Munich

There is a long history of climate protection policies in Munich. In 2010, so-called Integrated Action Programs for Climate Protection in Munich (IHKM) have first been designed. Climate protection strategies and measures in the H/C-sector have since then always played an important role. Recently, climate change issues have even become much more prominent and visible in Munich.
29 September 2023
DOWNLOAD

Transition Roadmap – City of Rotterdam

“By 2050, Rotterdam wants to be climate neutral: we no longer want to contribute to climate change. Because the CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases are a major cause of climate change, we want to reduce them significantly. As a city in the delta, the consequences for Rotterdam cannot be foreseen if we don’t act. One way to reduce emissions is to switch to alternatives to natural gas. This is also useful because in the future, much less natural gas will be produced in Groningen. In addition, we are preparing ourselves for the consequences of climate change, such as flooding and heat stress"
29 September 2023
DOWNLOAD

Transition Roadmap – City of Vienna

Vienna’s climate goals were laid down in the government agreement of 2020 and adopted in the updated Smart City Wien Strategy (2022) by the City Council. They comprise objectives both for climate protection and climate adaptation. In combination, they are to safeguard the quality of life for all Viennese and are to accomplish climate neutrality and climate resilience.
29 September 2023
DOWNLOAD

Transition Roadmap – City of Winterthur

In order to achieve the climate target of net zero tons of CO2 by 2040, the heat supply of the city of Winterthur will be provided by renewable energies and waste heat. It is a binding guideline plan that shows in which areas which energy sources are intended for heat supply.
29 September 2023
DOWNLOAD

Report on capacity-building measures (plus Annexes)

Cities have to face an evolving heating and cooling market, steer its decarbonisation, and engage citizens in the process. To provide solutions, knowledge and best practices, the Decarb City Pipes 2050 consortium organised capacity-building sessions for local authorities on these topics. This report summarises the main outcomes of these sessions, during which experts from cities across Europe have been invited, such as Munich, Vienna, Rotterdam, Mechelen, Brussels, etc.

29 January 2024
DOWNLOAD

City Reports

The city reports provide an overview of the planned decarbonisation of urban heating and cooling (H/C) systems in the different cities, the planning process, and challenges they face.
28 February 2024
DOWNLOAD

Decarb City Pipes 2050- Project Summary

Decarb City Pipes 2050 showcased how local authorities can build the capacity to tackle heating and cooling. Seven cities – Bilbao, Bratislava, Dublin, Munich, Rotterdam, Vienna, and Winterthur – joined forces to learn from each other and elaborate innovative responses together. These cities – ranging from frontrunners to beginners – built up skills in the collection and use of data, and the design and deployment of planning tools and instruments and explored transition pathways suitable for their local challenges. They also identified technically and economically feasible technology options and built internal know-how on process and transition management.
13 May 2024
DOWNLOAD
1

SEARCH

FILTERS