Høje Taastrup sets off Denmark’s biggest district cooling project

To establish district cooling in Høje Taastrup will be costly, but in return it will be the first step on the road to take advantage of all the excess heating and cooling, which would otherwise disappear into the air.

The first step in the project is a district cooling plant at Copenhagen Markets. Instead of establishing their own, local cooling plant, Copenhagen Markets oconnects to a central district cooling system, which sends cold liquid out to the wholesalers’ cold store. The excess heat from the cold productionis utilised by Høje Taastrup District Heating Company by directing it back into the district heating system.

Great opportunities for storage
It is not only Copenhagen Markets that will become part of the project. There are plenty of opportunities for other businesses in the area. It is not only businesses with vegetables and food products that can use district cooling but also office buildings with air conditioning and companies with large server rooms. All established and new businesses in the area are therefore encouraged to connect to the system.

The project does not stop here, however. Høje Taastrup District Company has plans to integrate storage of energy in the project, since about 90 companies in Taastrup have cooling systems and are currently throwing away excess heat from the cooling into the air. That heat must enter the system and be combined with storage, according to Managing Director of Høje Taastrup District Company Rudi Bjerregaard: “Most cooling systems run for a limited time period, for example during working hours in an office. Our thought is that if we can produce at night, through storage technology we will be able to store it for the daytime where it should be used. This is in the long term, but we have gotten so far that we have bought a site”, says the district heating director about the plans for groundwater cooling and large water towers for storage of chilled or hot water, that new customers can be connected to in step with their facilities becoming ripe for replacement.