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By Lars Gullev, Managing Director VEKS and Chairman of DBDH THE COLUMN
In one of Europe's largest urban areas - the Ruhr district of Germany - work has begun to connect two very large district heating systems with a district heating transmission line. Here, three companies have joined forces in a unique project that will reduce annual CO2 emissions by about 100,000 tons. The establishment of the transmission line means an increased use of industrial surplus heat; surplus heat from waste incineration; as well as surplus heat from CHP plants. More details about this unique project can be found in the article "Creating Europe’s largest interconnected district heating network: the Rhine-Ruhr district heating trunk line”. In the last theme article, we move forward to the United States - to Bridgeport, Connecticut, US, which is a city with 150,000 inhabitants. Here, a small developer wishes to establish a district heating system; however, it can prove difficult to get a comprehensive overview of all the supplies that are required in order to establish such a system. Therefore, ten Danish companies with extensive experience in the district heating sector have come together in a consortium which means that the developer only needs to contact one place - in short, a "one stop shopping". The article "One stop shop" provides a quick introduction to this concept which can be useful in many cities with no district heating today - or only limited distribution. I hope that you, the readers, will be interested in partly the focus articles, but also the other articles in this issue of Hot Cool. If you know of any exciting district heating projects that can be inspiring for others, please do not hesitate to submit your article proposals to us.
For too many years, we have been too confined in our thinking when it comes to energy. We have focused on industrial production, power generation, waste disposal, heating and transport as independent sectors to be handled individually and thus without focusing on a possible integration. Thinking across the sectors has not been the norm. However, if we are to tackle the challenges that we face in relation to the better use of the resources of the earth, it is imperative that we stop this "silo thinking" and instead take a more holistic approach to the world. By integrating the different sectors, it becomes possible to make what in one sector is a surplus product in another sector function as a resource. Thereby we can initially limit the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, but we can also in the long run stretch the resources of renewable energy even more.
In this issue of Hot Cool, we have three articles covering the theme "Cooperation in the energy sector".
Although there is an increasing focus on energy efficiency and better use of our resources, most people would probably agree that we could do a little better than we do today. However, for most people it is probably very surprising - or maybe even shocking - that today in Europe we are wasting energy equivalent to the entire amount of energy needed to heat our buildings. Yes - it is appalling that we do not have more focus on the problem. The article "Heat Roadmap Europe: Quantifying how district heating can simultaneously increase efficiency and integrate more renewable energy" provides a clear picture of how thinking across sectors can help use vast amounts of waste heat, and can provide a much more efficient use of renewable energy in our urban areas.
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