WHERE DISTRICT HEATING IS A BIG BIZ

New Technologies, Fuels Enhance Viability of $10 Billion District Heating Market; The decades-old alternative to distributed heating can deliver cost gains of up to 74%, depending on specific technologies, fuel mix and climate…

July 29, 2014 (Lux Research)

“District heating (DH) can deliver cost gains of up to 74% over conventional distributed heating…Although the sector is decades old and worth $10 billion annually, efficiency and technical sophistication of systems varies from region to region, with Europe currently leading the way…[N]ew technologies – coupled with a range of alternative fuels – will enable more efficiencies, lower carbon output, and enhance the economic viability of district heating for a wider range of geographies, notably the Northeast United States, Spain, Poland, South Korea and Japan…With incremental gains in combustion efficiency, natural gas-fired DH produces the most consistent total cost of operations (TCO) reductions across all three building types – residential, multi-residential and commercial. Cost savings range between 47% and 74%, better than those derived from biomass and waste-to-energy (WTE)…[DH can displace] high-cost electric heating [in Scandinavia and]…is a cost-effective alternative to fuel oil in Japan, Spain and Poland…In Asia-Pacific, the most promising technologies are Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHPs), biomass and solar thermal. Each can drive down TCO by 10%-20%. In South Korea, the GSHPs can realize a higher 30% cost reduction while China’s commercial segment alone is viable for Waste-to-Energy (WTE)…” click here for more

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