Search results for "District Heating"

District heating networks: enhancement of the efficiency

2019

International audience; During the decades the district heating's (DH) advantages (more cost-efficient heat generation and reduced air pollution) overcompensated the additional costs of transmission and distribution of the centrally produced thermal energy to consumers. Rapid increase in the efficiency of low-power heaters, development of separated low heat density areas in cities reduce the competitiveness of the large centralized DH systems in comparison with the distributed cluster-size networks and even local heating. Reduction of transmission costs, enhancement of the network efficiency by optimization of the design of the DH networks become a critical issue. The methodology for determ…

Modelling of a prosumer’s substation in a district heating network: validation and dynamic analysis

Thermal grids will play a key role in the development of local energy communities and the achievement of 100% renewable societies. However, challenges are related to the capability of dealing with the increasing number of producers which could supply heat to thermal grids. Indeed, as in the case of the electricity grid, heat could be available for some hours in a day from RES plants installed at user level and distributed in the network (also referred to as “prosumers”). To achieve more reliable results when performing energy analyses of these innovative applications, there is a need to rely on accurate models of each component. For instance, substations are of paramount importance in the i…

Assessing the feasibility of cogeneration retrofit and district heating/cooling networks in small Italian islands

2017

Sustainability of energy supply strategies in small islands has been emerging as a severe issue, due to the large margins for improvement and rationalization of the most frequently adopted solutions. In most of the European islands, large amounts of heat are wasted by the operation of engine-based power plants; conversely, heat is produced by boilers (supplied by liquid fuels) or by electric equipment for a number of different uses, like domestic hot water production or space heating in winter. In this paper a techno-economic analysis is proposed to assess the feasibility of CHP-retrofit of the existing power plants and the possible utilization of the recovered heat to supply, via a distric…

A novel hybrid polygeneration system supplying energy and desalinated water by renewable sources in Pantelleria Island

2017

Abstract In this paper a thermoeconomic analysis of a novel hybrid Renewable Polygeneration System connected to a district heating and cooling network is presented. The plant is powered simultaneously by solar and geothermal sources, producing electricity, desalinated water, heat and cooling energy. System layout includes Parabolic Through Collector (PTC) field, geothermal wells, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) unit and a Multi-Effect Desalination (MED) system. Cooling and thermal demands are calculated by suitable building dynamic simulation models, calibrated for Pantelleria Island. Electrical demand is obtained by measured data. A detailed control strategy has been implemented in order to pr…

Multicriteria evaluation of carbon-neutral heat-only production technologies for district heating

2018

Climate change mitigation requires reducing dependence on fossil fuels and transition to low carbon energy production technologies. Nearly half of the global final energy consumption is thermal energy produced from technologies with high carbon dioxide emission. As such, it is imperative to employ carbon-neutral heat production to achieve a sustainable energy system. This paper presents a real-life case of applying multicriteria decision analysis for evaluating carbon-neutral heat-only production technologies in a major district heating system in Finland. A group of 10 experts from the energy company contributed in defining the alternative technologies and multiple economic, technological, …

Techno-economic analysis of a local district heating plant under fuel flexibility and performance

2017

Brovst is a small district in Denmark. This paper analyses the use of local renewable resources in the district heating systems of Brovst. The present use of fossil fuels in the Brovst district heating plant (DHP) represents an increasing environmental and climate-related load. Therefore, an investigation has been made to reduce the use of fossil fuels for district heating system and make use of the local renewable resources (biogas, solar, and heat pump) for district heating purposes. In this article, the techno-economic assessment is achieved through the development of a suite of models that are combined to give cost and performance data for this district heating system. Local fuels have …

Stochastic multicriteria evaluation of district heating systems considering the uncertainties

2018

It is of great importance to choose a suitable district heating (DH) system for a specific DH area from the economics, environment and energy (3E) points of view. This is a multicriteria decision making problem, in which the criteria performance values (PVs) and weighting are characterized by uncertain or imprecise information. In this study, seven candidate DH systems are evaluated from the viewpoints of 3E by the stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA) method. SMAA is able to handle the uncertainties of the criteria PVs and the weighting at the same time. These uncertainties are very common and typical in real-life, but in most cases are not treated judiciously or just negl…

The Role of Technology in Participative Processes

2016

Smart city is more and more, in the common feeling, the crossroad of technologies, but first and foremost, the place where humans, contexts and technologies meet and must interact. Technological systems thanks to the deep human interaction acquire an uncertain behaviour that can be hardly modelled and controlled. The resulting complexity, cannot be easily handled with the tools that are available to separate scientific fields. The interdisciplinarity that comes from the implementation of technologies and the dialogue between these and the territories requires new tools for classification and design. New urban design tools are needed allowing to identify in a standardized way adequate suppor…

Paving the way for the Paris Agreement:Contributions of SDEWES science

2023

Today, coal is responsible for 40% of annual CO2 emissions. At the same time, global warming causes climate changes accompanied with catastrophic meteorological phenomena all over the world. After the 2015 Paris Agriment many countries set ambitious energy policy to reduce the annual greenhouse gas emission. The 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, COP26 - Glasgow, ended with the adoption of a less stringent resolution than some anticipated: countries only agreed to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal. Is possible the realization of the Paris Agreement after COP-26? For achieving this ambitious targets in such conditions, the support of the multi-disciplinary scientific knowledge is nee…

Recent advances in methods, policies and technologies at sustainable energy systems development

2022

Following the 2015 Paris Agreement and other agreements which have been signed after, sustainable energy development is becoming the major goal in many countries. EU have set the targets to reduce the annual greenhouse gas emission by 40% in 2030 and 80% for 2050 compared with 1990 levels. For achieving this ambitious energy policy, three major technological changes are available: energy savings on the demand side, efficiency improvements in the energy production, and replacement of fossil fuels by various sources of renewable energy. Also, for realization cited three major technological changes the support of the multi-disciplinary scientific knowledge is needed. Therefore, from the beginn…