If you do, let’s play a new game. Instead of battling with cars, let’s play with heat options for urban areas! Let’s battle with the many different options discussed all the time as an alternative to district heating, mainly hydrogen, biogas, individual heat pumps, direct electricity, and natural gas. And let’s see what solution comes out victorious.
By Morten Jordt Duedahl, Business Developer, DBDH and Hanne Kortegaard Støchkel, Project Development Manager, DBDH
Published in Hot Cool, edition no. 1/2025 | ISSN 0904 9681 |
As kids, we battled on acceleration, top speed, and engine size. The new “Heat a City” card game has completely different categories. The minimum requirement to even get into the game must be that the solution is or has the potential to become fully carbon neutral. Natural gas, you are out!
There are other new categories. A heating solution must be strong in several areas to win the game. Price for the customers (hydrogen and biogas, are you still here?), energy efficiency (direct electric, do you struggle?), security of supply, integration in urban environments (individual heat pumps, are you too noisy?), benefits to other energy sectors, job creation, import independence, and several more, all have to be strong to be the winner.
With the climate urgency in mind, an imperative factor is how ready-to-install the technology is! Can we start installing it now? We cannot wait decades for a solution to maybe develop or maybe grow to scale; we are under a time constraint and need to act now. COP29 is happening right now – we need to act on the climate urgency!
Hydrogen, biogas, etc., all have a strong and important role to play – but not for making lukewarm water to heat buildings and give us a nice, warm, renewable morning shower. Individual heat pumps are perfect outside urban areas (just need enough renewable electricity and grid capacity). Biogas and hydrogen are the best, if not the only, solution to many industrial processes and transport, even though it will be very costly. There are strong reasons why all these technologies should not be used for heating urban areas and why they at the same time should be developed ASAP for other uses. These technologies should be supported and directed to where they give the highest value to society and where someone is ready to pay.
I remember that my card games often had one supercar and one looser-car. If you had the supercar, you would most often end up winning. Playing the “Heat a City” card game, you win with the district heating card – DH is the supercar in any urban area. Outside urban areas, individual heat pumps would be the supercar, but that’s a different game.
DH is more energy-efficient, utilises surplus heat from any source (e.g., geothermal and data centres), and benefits the electricity and hydrogen industry. DH is cheaper, long-term, and mainly import-independent. Would DH lose out on disturbance to the traffic? In the very short term, during construction likely, but over the full lifetime perspective – hardly!
Having the battle done once and for all would be so much easier.
Could we please play this game once and for all? Then, municipal heat planners could make their heat plans focusing on the real solution, meaning plans would be easier, shorter, quicker, and to the point; the politicians could focus their attention and support on the right technologies and applications; and then the rest of us could get to work and get pipes in the ground and deliver some renewable heat now.
If you are convinced you can stack a set of arguments that beats DH, let’s battle!!
The game is on!
“Do You Remember This Card Game?” was published in Hot Cool, edition no. 1/2025. You can download the article here:
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