“What is the greater value of heat planning – to cities, citizens, and society? To give input on that topic, we have invited mayor Steen Christiansen from the municipality of Albertslund, chairman of the heat transmission company VEKS, and board member of the Danish DH Association to discuss with Volker Kienzlen, managing director of the Klima und Energie Agentur (KEA), Baden Württemberg.
Morten Jordt Duedahl
Steen Christiansen
Volker Kienzlen
In this episode of the DBDH district heating podcast, we discuss heat planning and why it is so important. In short, good planning will ensure that the local authorities can provide the right, fair, sustainable, and affordable heat solutions to its citizens – that is, district heating in any kind of urban area (villages, towns, and cities) and heat pumps outside these areas. This will be an important part of making your municipality a liveable place. As the experts agree on – “Get started! Don’t wait!”
Responding to energy and climate crises in Denmark and Germany
A new crisis has pushed even more towards more district heating in Denmark and Germany. In Denmark, we had to take a new round of planning. BW (Baden Württemberg, Germany) is ahead of others as they have already started the planning. New sources, new systems, and a double crisis—energy and climate—need to be dealt with.
Your experts in this podcast are from Germany, where heat planning has just begun, with the new law dictating all local authorities to make heat planning for all municipalities larger than 10,000 people, and from Denmark. Actually, the two experts do not disagree on much but simply urge everyone to get started and take on the responsibility required.
The German expert is Volker Kienzlen, managing director of Klima und Energie Agentur, Baden Württemberg. Together with his team, they made the first heat planning law in Germany, supporting the development of heat plans in the largest 104 local authorities. In the other chair for this talk, you will find Steen Christiansen, mayor of Albertslund – a municipality on the outskirts of Copenhagen, also chairman of the board of VEKS (DH transmission company in Copenhagen, Denmark), and a board member of the Danish DH Association. Two experts who nicely combine German and Danish expertise on supporting the green heat transition.
Fostering municipal leadership: The key to advancing district heating solutions
Both experts agree that politicians, both local and national, must step up and make sure things can happen. Both in Denmark and in Germany, the local authorities are given the mandate to do things – and yes, both Volker and Steen agree that the key is municipal leadership and taking responsibility for further solutions. “The local authorities must take leadership,” Volker says. Only they can put on the long-term perspective and deliver on these agendas.
“Transparency” is a keyword – listen in and learn how important our experts find that idea.
There are differences. In Denmark, people are eager to become less dependent on natural gas and look for DH. In Germany, people think they become dependent on one supplier when they get DH.
Learning from Denmark is important – one learning could be – just get started!! There is still a long way to go, and convincing people to like DH is a big thing.
Get started – don’t wait!
Steen Christiansen
Steen Christiansen is the mayor at the municipality of Albertslund, chairman of the heat transmission company VEKS, and board member of the Danish DH Association. He has had District Heating on his agenda for a long time, and his municipality is leading the way in both sustainable and energy-efficient transitions. Based on good heat planning, the municipally owned DH company is expanding to convert more households from natural gas to district heating. “
Volker Kienzlen
Volker Kienzlen is the managing director of the Klima und Energie Agentur (KEA), Baden Württemberg. Volker Kienzlen and his team have been leading the work in BW to implement the first German law on heat planning and have also been instrumental in an international heat project where heat is taken from Kehl in Germany and piped to a large DH network in Strasbourg.