Low Carbon District Heating

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Sustainable Energy-Investigating Low/Zero Carbon Energy Technology
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Table of Contents
Low Carbon District Heating.......................................................................................................................3
Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................3
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................3
Current State of Low-Carbon Heating Districts in Sweden.....................................................................4
Heat Pumps..........................................................................................................................................5
Wood Heating......................................................................................................................................6
CHP Systems.......................................................................................................................................6
Solar Thermal Systems........................................................................................................................6
Hybrid Systems...................................................................................................................................7
Impact on the Energy System and Other Fuels........................................................................................7
Technical Developments.........................................................................................................................9
Combined CHP systems......................................................................................................................9
Application of Better Sophisticated Technologies.............................................................................10
Application of Hybrid Systems..........................................................................................................10
Barriers and Opportunities.....................................................................................................................11
Barriers..............................................................................................................................................11
Opportunities.....................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion and Personal View on technology.......................................................................................13
References.............................................................................................................................................16
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Low Carbon District Heating
Executive Summary
Due to the unanimous agreement for the need of the world to move towards a low carbon energy
supply within the century, different countries have adopted different low and zero carbon energy
technologies. In Sweden, low carbon district heating has been greatly embraced. The technology
utilizes the techniques of heat pumps, solar concentrators, CHP and hybrid system to generate
heat from various sources and convey to utilization points via insulated pipes. It has led to the
reduction of C02 emissions, better utilization of local resources and cost saving. The technology
began in Sweden for small scale purposes but have undergone sophisticated development to meet
large scale demands. The technology is faced with the problems of poor regulation and resistance
to adopt energy efficient techniques. However, it still has the potential to set Sweden as a bench
mark for the other countries to the transition to cost effective low carbon energy system.
Introduction
Throughout many years, fossil fuels have been the most dominant source of energy utilized in
the heating sector. This source of energy is not environmentally friendly and is limited in supply
(Hartley, 2018). Countries have adopted different technologies to curb the limitations posed by
the use of fossil fuels. One such technology is the low carbon-heating district. It is a technology
that in recent years has been associated to low cost decarbonation of energy systems by nations
world over (Werner, 2017). A heating district is a technology that involves conveyance of heat
energy generated from various sources to consumers via a well-connected system of insulated
pipes from a district rather than the consumers having individual boilers or heat pumps. Nations
world over have embraced the use of low carbon heating districts as a cost-effective means to
mitigate climate change through carbon emission reduction utilizing readily available primary
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sources of energy with the aim to meet the environmental goals. In many countries though, the
sources of this energy are majorly from biomass, solar, waste products and excess heat from
industries. This paper focuses on the technologies, developments, barriers, opportunities and
impacts of low carbon district heating in Sweden.
Current State of Low-Carbon Heating Districts in Sweden
In the past half century and even currently, approximately 70% of energy consumed in Sweden
comprise of heating and cooling processes (Lucia and Ericsson, 2014). However, in the past only
an approximate 15% of this energy came from renewable low carbon energy sources. As a result,
this nation has heavily invested in low energy, less carbon emissive energy technologies through
the years. One such technology that has heavily been embraced is the utilization of low carbon
heating districts. The technology has seen Sweden reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from
domestic, commercial and industrial utilities by over 50% proportion (Johhanneson, 2017).
The diverse existence of renewable energy sources in Sweden gives the district heating
technologies embraced in the country the capability to meet the demands of the heating sector
without relying on high carbon emitting fossil fuels (Hast, Syri, Lekavicius, and Galinis, 2018).
Over the past half of the century, Sweden heavily relied on fossil fuels but the country has since
focused on removal of domestic and commercial use of fossil fuels for heating purposes through
replacement with district heating and electricity in the form heat pumps and resistive heating
respectively. Currently the Sweden heating districts rely on biofuels such as forestry residues,
commercial, industrial and domestic waste materials, and excess heat from other industries as the
main sources of energy and 5% of fossil fuels (Ericsson and Werner, 2016).
The heating districts in Sweden utilizes the following technologies.
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