New district heating companies are popping up everywhere: On Monday morning, DIN Forsyning founded an independent company – Lokalvarme A/S – which will investigate the possibilities for collective heating solutions.
At an extraordinary general meeting on Monday morning, DIN Forsyning in Esbjerg established an independent company in the DIN Forsyning group. The new company must investigate the possibilities for collective solutions for heat in local areas that do not have the option of being connected to the district heating network.
The name of the new company will be Lokalvarme A/S, which will investigate the possibilities for collective heating solutions other than district heating in Esbjerg and Varde municipalities, according to a press release from DIN Forsyning.
– As the major player in the supply area in Esbjerg and Varde municipalities, we have a social responsibility not to leave anyone behind. – Therefore, we are now, in collaboration with the two municipalities, starting work to identify the areas where there may be a possibility of common local heating solutions, says chairman of DIN Forsyning, Kurt Bjerrum, who adds:
– Unfortunately, I cannot promise that we can help everyone, but the more households we can convert from fossil fuels to more sustainable solutions, the better.
Heating plans are on the way.
The company is ready to receive the recommendations for the two municipalities’ heating plans, which are on the way. Overall, Esbjerg Municipality is concerned with achieving the goal of being CO2-neutral by 2030.
– Our new strategic heating plan points precisely to the fact that several areas have the potential to establish local heating. During the plan preparation, there has been dialogue with several local councils about the future heat supply. With Lokalvarme A/S, the dialogue can move into a new and more concrete phase, says the mayor of Esbjerg Municipality, Jesper Frost Rasmussen.
Varde’s mayor, Mads Sørensen, also sees the prospects in the new company:
– Collective heating solutions are in demand among the citizens of Varde Municipality. With the foundation of this company, we are taking an important step towards being able to offer more people a cheaper heating solution. The heat source is increasingly decisive for choosing a home, and this company is, therefore, also an investment in getting more people to settle in our area.
The initiative must come from local communities.
According to the thinking behind the new company, local heating is a common heating solution in a local area that cannot be connected to the existing district heating network. District heating consists of a heat production plant and a distribution network.
It can consist of many different heat sources: heat pumps, biomass boilers, geothermal heat, solar heat, excess heat from local companies, etc. It can consist of a single source or a miniature version of the future district heating, where the individual sources can be turned up and down, depending on which is the cheapest and greenest.
At DIN Forsyning, they believe they can be included as a collaboration partner on several levels. It can be as a midwife in establishing the energy production and distribution network and as an operational manager with local communities.
– That is why the local initiative is crucial. We are happy to offer dancing, but the local communities must do the initial work themselves. It could initially be about investigating how many in the local community are interested in a joint solution. We have already seen this in some local areas, which are well underway with the initial work, says Kurt Bjerrum.
Translated from the Danish District Heating Association