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January 2021

Modernizing District Heating with RES

As the general trend in the energy sector and the supporting policies aim towards 100% renewable energies for 2050, upgrading heat generation with renewable energy sources and including innovative heat storage technologies will be key. The goal is clear but how to get there is uncertain and will vary from city to city.

To get some inspiration and exchange on possible ways forward, the Celsius Initiative has teamed-up with RES-DHC and UpgradeDH, two European projects at the forefront of modernizing district heating systems by integrating renewable energy sources, among other.

Below you will find an inspirational story from the city of Eeklo in Belgium, more infomation about the projects and key articles from the Celsius Toolbox. Moreover, you are kindly invited to join us Tuesday January 26 at 09:30 CET for the Celsius Talk on “Retrofitting with renewable energies – finding the right mix“.

A small city making a big difference

This small Belgian city between Bruges and Ghent has made an extraordinary leap in their energy transition with high stakeholder engagement and renewable energy sources.

Listen to Eeklo's inspirational story

Possibilities, challenges and best practices

Generating Heat with Renewable Energy

In addition to solar and biomass, there is a number of different heat generation technologies that make district heating systems less reliant of fossil fuels. For example integration of geothermal heat, excess heat recuperation, power-to-heat, as well as integration of heat storage technologies. These are described in the UpgradeDH handbook.

About the vast possibilities of RES

Renewable energy sources in district heating and cooling as a path to climate-neutral cities

RES-DHC stands for a wider introduction of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in the District Heating and Cooling (DHC) sector. The RES-DHC project addresses the manifold market uptake challenges related to the transformation of DHC systems to higher shares of RES.

Find out more about RES-DHC objectives and partners

From the Celsius Toolbox

Improving energy efficiency – A handbook on upgrading DH

Assessment methodology for urban excess heat recovery solutions

Waste-to-Energy: Making use of useless waste

Based on the experience from companies in six different European countries, this handbook elaborates technical and non-technical approaches for upgrading existing DH systems.

A large amount of low-temperature urban excess heat sources is available to play a fundamental role in the decarbonisation of the heating sector, including the present and future of district heating networks. Learn more about how to assess urban excess heat recovery solutions

Some materials are hard to recycle. But there is a way to make use of rubber boots, contaminated packaging and other waste that recyclers don’t want. Waste-to-energy uses waste as fuel to produce heat & electricity.