Berlin has a long and strong tradition for district heating. Like other district heating systems, much effort is put into making the systems more energy-sufficient and sustainable. At this German-Danish workshop, we combined site visits and sessions to tackle challenges for DH development and heat planning in Germany.
A group of German municipalities, the German energy agency, the national competence centre for municipal heat transition (KWW) in Germany, and a group of DH experts from Denmark met in Berlin to support the efforts for an efficient heat transition in Germany.
The site visits to see new and sustainable DH sites included:
- A heat pump based on water from the river Spree
- 3×40 MW electric boilers
- The world’s largest steel tank for heat storage for district heating
The workshops included inputs on different topics:
- The Berliner Stadtwerke giving input on local projects integrated with the wastewater system;
- The Stadtwerke Bamberg giving input about the transformation of an area with old military barracks;
- Discussions on how to deal with challenges that are relevant to many German municipalities, such as
– how and when to communicate with local citizens,
– implementing DH zone-by-zone as part of a bigger heat plan;
– how to keep momentum and commitment for DH and heat planning when some actors have been lobbying that because of hydrogen in the future, there is no need to do anything; 4) the importance of assessing risks and priorities before deciding on ownership of the DH system that will follow after the municipal heat planning phase in Germany
The knowledge-sharing and sparring are part of a German-Danish collaboration about district heating and municipal heat planning. Though focusing on German municipal heat planning, the project promotes knowledge exchange in both directions, and the project team (dena, KWW, and DBDH) and the German municipalities were joined by municipal heat planner in Holbæk municipality Patrizia Renoth and the Head of Energy and Supply Jesper Møller Larsen at the Verdo utility.
If you have ideas or examples to support this work, please get in touch with Hanne Kortegaard Støchkel, hks@dbdh.dk, or Morten Jordt Duedahl, md@dbdh.dk
To read more about the project funded by the Danish Energy Agency (TFE-grant), click the link below.
